Page 38 of 1000 of You
Ossaglanced atBregstrom. “I hate to admit it, but hemakes a valid point.”
The five ofthem sat in silence that gradually grew uncomfortable. Before long,Bregstromuncrossed his legs and stood. “Well, I don’t knowabout the rest of you, but I can’t sit around here waiting for the apocalypse,or whatever you think is coming to kill you, and maybe take the rest of us withit. If you don’t mind, why don’t we pretend this whole thing is one big joke,and get down to the reason why we’re here in the first place?”
Govalooked her husband. “He makes sense. What would ithurt?”
“Nothing.The man is wise to suggest we try to go on as if our doom is not waiting tostrike us down again. If you men do not mind, please remind us what ouroriginal purpose is for being here. Also, if you would, answer me this. What isa dig?”
Chapter 20
Discovery
They exitedout the tent and walked a short distance to where the land suddenly disappearedbeneath their feet.Muamstared in shock at the firmground beneath him that was as clear as water, but was strong enough to supportall their weight.
Govagasped, drawing his attention to what lay in front ofthem. It was a deep, wide hole in the sand. Although he couldn’t tell forcertain, it seemed that more of those water-clear walls were preventing thesands from pouring back into it.
A smallbrown, urn-shaped object rose from the pit and flew to a spot nearby beforedropping a load of sand from its underbelly. A second urn followed it, then athird. As he took it all in, he realized the urns were flying in some sort ofpattern. When the first urn flew back down into the pit, another one was seenrising from the depths.
“What isall this?” he asked.
“It starteda little over eight months ago,” Ossa explained. “That’s when the Turkishmilitary began mapping the desert with surveillance drones. The drones haveground-penetrating radar, to help them find buried caches of weapons and such.When they got to this area, they got a hit, and the army was sent out toinvestigate. But they discovered whatever had pinged the drone was buriedfurther down than was feasibly possible.”
“How deepdown?”Govaquestioned.
“Not quite thirtymeters,” Ossa replied. “Most caches are, at the most, three to four metersdown. But at the depth they were spotting, it was impossible to think anyrenegade army would take the time and effort to sink their weaponry that deep.”
“What if itwas a tank or plane, or something else that large?”Dolucawondered aloud.
Ossa wavedit off. “The pings were too small to be a tank, or large equipment.”
Bregstromtook over. “That’s when we got a call at theinstitute, asking for us to help come check it out, on the off chance it mightbe an archeological site that needs excavating. There’ve been several suchincidents in the past where satellite images have detected similar placesscattered throughout the desert. So you andme, Dr.Beccali, came to get this dig started. It means exactlywhat it sounds like, Dr. Tripp,uhh,Muam. We dig into the ground to find out what’sunderneath.”
“And whenwe began to uncover the remains of a village we had no idea ever existed here,that’s when we called for your assistance,” Ossa concluded.
“What kindof assistance would Dr. Tripp have provided?”Muamquestioned, glancing over atDoluca.
“Youspecialize in Far Eastern history,” the young assistant provided. “We’re todetermine what country or tribe this village belonged to.”
“We need tolearn if this village is part of Turkish history, or of a tribe that migratedfrom other areas and settled here,” Ossa added.
“How wouldI be able to make that determination?”Muamqueried.
Bregstrompointed downward. “You go into the pit and takesamples. Take pictures. Hopefully find some artifacts. And then you make aneducated guess as to which country owns the rights to the site based on yourfindings.”
All duringtheir discussion,Muamnoticed how the urns neverceased coming above ground to dump their loads of sand at a spot far enoughaway to where it wouldn’t slide back inside the pit.
Somethingin the back of his mind, something about this place, intrigued him. Looking atGova, he noticed a curious expression on her face, and hegave her waist a squeeze. “What are you thinking?”
“I am notthinking so much as I am… I cannot explain it, but this place feels familiar. Ifeel that we have lived here before.”
Hechuckled. “It is very possible, considering how long we have lived.”
Bregstromstepped off the clear floor and waved for them tofollow. “Let me show you what we’ve already managed to uncover.” As theyproceeded back to the tent, the man explained further. “It took us eighteendays to uncover the first set of buildings. After which, we reverted to thevacuums to remove the finer debris.”
“Any signsof art or mosaics?”Dolucainquired.
“Not yet.From the looks of it, this was an ordinary village not meant to be a mecca orcenter of trading, although we’ve uncovered what appears to be carts andwagons.”
“Then whatalerted the drone?” the assistant insisted.
