The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (17 page)

 Kathlyn paused a moment to
admire her husband, his powerful form as he plugged away at the cement-like
ground. Even after a year of marriage, it still made her heart jump simply to
look at him. But Fayd was waving to her from the site of A-2 and she
reluctantly tore her focus away from Marcus. Sipping the coffee, she offered
Fayd a generic smile.

"Good morning," Fayd
said. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," she took
another sip. "How are we coming along on this one?"

Fayd could see that she wasn't
much for pleasantries this morning and he was strangely disappointed. In fact,
she hadn't warmed to him at all this entire trip. Although he knew why, still,
it was disappointing. The Kathlyn Trent he had known in the past had been very
congenial and open. Burton had her all frozen up. He looked down at the
skeleton at his feet.

 "We found something
interesting last night I thought you might like to see," he said, kneeling
down by the head.  Running his fingers along the brow ridge of the skull, he
indicated for her to do the same. "Feel anything?"

Kathlyn examined the bone. Her
curious gaze met his intense stare. "No horns?'

"Exactly. The brow is
smooth."

Baffled, Kathlyn looked more
closely at the skeleton; this one was in a far better position than the A-1,
almost flat on its back.  The wings were present, however, apparently spread
underneath the body as if creating a bed to cushion the eternal rest.  She took
a tape measure from Fayd's toolbox and ran it along the long bone of the thigh.

  "Twenty four inches,"
she stood up. "Based on standard measurements with the relative length of
the tibia about five inches less, we've got a leg length of forty three
inches."

Fayd nodded in agreement.
"With a two-thirds length of that for the torso, we have someone who is
approximately six feet tall."

Kathlyn glanced over at A-1.
"He sure is a lot shorter than our first guy."

Fayd ran his fingers over the
bones of the shoulder. "He's smaller all the way around. His bones are
smaller, his stature in general.  He looks more like a person of today as
opposed to that giant over there."

Kathlyn's mind was swirling with
interesting theories.  "Do you think we're going to be able to free this
one before we leave?"

Fayd shrugged. "Your husband
and Dr. Davis should have our first relic free by this afternoon. We can ship
that one out and try to free this one as best we can until time runs out."

"What does that mean?"

"Just that. I could put a
few carefully-placed charges in and around the relic to try to jolt it loose.
Then we could let the pneumatic drills finish off the rest."

Kathlyn's eyebrows lifted.
"Charges? You've got to be kidding, Fayd."

"Not at all."

"You'll destroy it."

"I don't think so. I've done
it before to loosen things that were difficult to extract. Sure, you may have
some shock-related damage, but...."

Kathlyn shook her head. "No
way.  Even I don't use explosives to excavate. Marcus would come apart at the
seams if you tried that."

"Not if he doesn't know
about it."

"What do you mean?"

"We'll send him ahead with
the original relic. I'll remain behind and attempt to free this one."

Kathlyn sipped her coffee,
shaking her head. "Out of the question."

Fayd looked down at the skeleton.
He was silent a moment. "Of course, this is my dig, Kathlyn. Technically,
I can do whatever I wish in order to accomplish what needs to be done."

He was right. Kathlyn just stood
there, coffee in hand, trying to think of something to say without telling him
what an idiot he was.  She had always known him to be unscrupulous and
shouldn't have been surprised by his suggestion. Unable to think of anything to
say, she simply shrugged her shoulders and walked away.

 Otis was standing by the edge of
the site. He flagged Kathlyn over to him. She marched across the stones and
dust in her big black boots, still peeved about Fayd and his dynamite scheme.

"Hey, Otis," she
greeted him.

"Good morning," Otis
had been an extremely handsome man in his younger years. Even at fifty-two, he
easily looked ten years younger. "I have something I thought you might
like to see."

She followed him over to a small
tent where his computer equipment was housed. Otis had spent all of yesterday
running the deadhead over the ground, taking readings and feeding them into the
computer. The computer now had enough data from about a five thousand square
foot area.  Otis pulled out a manila file jacket and removed the paperwork.

It was a grid diagram of the
site. Kathlyn could immediately make out four bodies and a host of other small
items beneath the surface of the ground.

"What's all this
stuff?" she pointed at the black pieces against the white background.

Otis wriggled his blond eyebrows.
"More relics. Debris, maybe.  We won't know until we pick one and do a
test dig.  But I thought this was rather interesting," he pointed to A-1.
"See how big this guy is? Now if you look at the other three, they're not
so big. In fact, they're much smaller than our original find. Know what
else?"

Kathlyn was studying the paper
intently. "What?"

"They're all pretty busted
up.

"You'd be too if you were as
old as I think these things are."

"No, I mean more than that. 
A-4 has a shattered skull and A-3 looks as if his head as been ripped off. The
neck is broken. And A-2, which seems to be our most perfectly formed relic, has
signs of a crushed pelvis and sternum. Do you know what this kind of thing
resembles?"

Kathlyn glanced at him.
"What?"

Otis looked back at the page.
"A skydiver whose parachute doesn't open."

"Like a great fall from the
sky?"

"Exactly."

Kathlyn let out a long, slow
breath. "This is getting weirder by the moment. When I saw the A-1 those
weeks ago, I was excited because I thought it was a fallen angel. Now my angel
has grown horns and instead of one, there are three more guys with wings, and
these three are all busted up. Did you tell Marcus any of this?"

Otis shook his head. "No.
He's been so busy I haven't wanted to bother him. And you...."

Kathlyn grinned ruefully.
"I've spent my time freaking out."

Otis laughed softly. "Kat,
I've seen you go through a lot of things, but freaking out isn't one of them.
I, for one, was partial to your theory about the four angels of death until I
saw this ground scan. But now...."

"What do you think?"

Otis pursed his lips and set the
paper down. "If you want my professional opinion, I'd say that all of
these guys were killed by a great fall. I've only mentioned A-2, 3 and 4, but
A-1 shows signs of serious trauma, too."

A chill ran up Kathlyn's spine.
"'And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the
dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.  But he was not strong
enough, and they lost their place in heaven.'"

Otis smiled timidly. "It
would be really amazing if this is actual evidence of the war for heaven,
wouldn't it? It's almost unfathomable."

Kathlyn could only nod, faintly.
"At least I'm not so sure we're excavating the four horsemen of the
Apocalypse now, but I still feel uneasy. Something's just not right."

Otis put his paper back into the
file jacket and put it away. "I must say that in all the years we've gone
myth-chasing together, this is certainly one of the most heady.  Maybe we
should contact a pastor or rabbi on this and get their take on the
situation."

Kathlyn tilted her head in the
direction of Otis' file. "Can you scan that onto a disc?"

"Sure."

"Great. Give it to me and
I'll send a few emails."

"You got it."

Kathlyn left the tent feeling
more confident than she had in a day. No sooner had she left Otis, however,
than de Tormo blocked her path. She smelled him even before she saw him, the
scent of body order strong and nauseating. He was still clutching his briefcase
and his palms left wet prints on the leather.

"Dr. Trent," he said.
"We must talk."

She cocked an eyebrow.
"About what?

De Tormo snorted ironically. "What
is there not to talk about? Instead of one angel, we now have four. I've heard
rumor of your theories, but I must know personally what you think this may
be."

Kathlyn licked her lips, thinking
carefully on her answer. It was obvious by her expression that she had little
patience for the man. "I don't know what this may be," she said
flatly. "There are all sorts of theories bouncing about.  Tonight I
suspect we'll have a brainstorming session and I'll be better able to fill you
in then. Right now, I don't even want to guess."

She moved past de Tormo and he
followed her. "But all four are angels, correct?"

"I don't know what they
are."

"But they have wings!"

She paused, abruptly. "Yes,
and one of them has what appears to be horns. Should I tell you that that
particular skeleton is a demon? I don't even want to speculate right now. When
the forensic artist does her work, then we'll have a better look at what it
is."

De Tormo's small brown eyes
widened. "One of them has horns? But I never heard that."

"Of course you didn't. No
one is going to tell you anything but me."

He looked shocked. "A demon,
did you say?"

"I didn't say
anything."

"But you're going to do a
physical reconstruction?"

"Of course."

She started walking again. De
Tormo sprinted after her. "So it possible, then, that we have a relic of
Hell now instead of Heaven?"

"Anything is possible."

"When will you be able to
free this relic with horns?"

"That's the one we're
working on now. It should be free by this afternoon."

"Dr. Trent," he said. 
When she didn't stop, he reached out and grabbed her by the arm, jerking her to
a halt. "This puts an entirely new light on the situation, of
course."

She glared at him. "De
Tormo, if you don't want to lose that hand, I suggest you remove it."

To her surprise, he didn't
release her. "You obviously don't realize the critical nature of this
find. The Vatican must be allowed to have unlimited access to it for our
scientists and scholars to study."

Kathlyn didn't say anything. She
just stared at him. Finally, he got the message and let go of her arm.

"That relic is going to The
Center for Middle Eastern History in Amman. An entire group of international
scientists are lined up to study it there, the best in their fields. I doubt
The Vatican could do better."

De Tormo shook his head.
"I'm sorry, but I must protest. If this is, in fact, a demon it must be
kept within the confines of the holiest city in the world. To leave it anywhere
else, especially in Muslim country, I fear would bring great danger."

Kathlyn sighed, with great
annoyance. "There's no danger in three thousand year old bones, de Tormo.
Now, I've got work to do."

He grabbed her again before she
could walk off, his fingers biting into her arm. "You must allow me to
arrange transport to The Vatican.  The significance of this is simply too great
for anyone else to touch it."

He was hurting her. "De
Tormo, let go of me."

"Not until you understand
how serious this is. You've ignored me since our arrival, Dr. Trent. Now, you
must understand what this means to us, to the world in general. It's too
important to leave to the savages!"

"I said let go of me."

His grip only tightened. "If
I could only make you...."

His statement was cut off by a
flying fist to his jaw. The fat man went reeling, his briefcase flying into the
air. Marcus pushed past Kathlyn, going after de Tormo like a hungry dog after a
meaty bone.  Kathlyn reached out to grab him before he got too far.

 "Whoa, Rocky," she dug
her heels in to halt his advance. "I think he got the message. He can't
take another one of those hits."

Truth was, de Tormo was out
cold.  Being left handed, Marcus packed a southpaw punch that was devastating.
He glared daggers at the unconscious man before turning to his wife. "Are
you okay?"

She waved him off. "I'm
fine, for Heaven's sake. You didn't have to belt him like that."

Marcus took hold of her arm,
noting the bloody crescents where de Tormo's fingernails had cut her. "I'd
say this is reason enough. God only knows what that filthy bastard has under
his nails. We need to clean this up right away."

Leaving de Tormo on the dirt for
the sun and elements, she let Marcus take her back over to the make-shift mess
tent.  There was a first aid kit there. Juliana was barely up, getting her
coffee with red-rimmed eyes.  One look at the marks on Kathlyn's arm and she
seemed to snap out of her lethargy.