by Louise Clark
Her steps lagged as she headed down the path. She didn’t want a confrontation with Scarr. Not this morning, not with Mike observing, not anytime or for any reason. Too bad her gut said she was about to get one. She kept her gaze on the path, as if she was watching her steps. That way she wouldn’t catch his eye and have to talk to him any earlier than necessary.
He must have found out that they’d identified the dino as a Daspletosaurus, but how? The sound of the generator chugging away, caught her attention and gave her the answer.
Mike’s dino cam. Somehow Scarr had linked into the feed. It would have been obvious to anyone watching that something momentous had happened. Scarr, expert paleontologist that he was, would have figured out the ramifications. He was probably miffed that she hadn’t immediately informed him of the discovery.
That thought cheered her because the short answer was that she couldn’t. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t thought of contacting him at any point. She was completely in the right here. She’d explain, he’d calm down, and everything would be fine.
After all, Mark said that the Daspletosaurus was in all of the literature and that she had a brilliant career. Obviously it was this find that started her on her path to success, so Scarr’s annoyance would be smoothed over and she’d continue with her excavation.
She approached Scarr and Zac with a much more jaunty step then she had when she began her descent into the rift. Scarr glared at her. Zac’s expression was carefully blank.
“You’re late. Where have you been?” Scarr said. His tone was a combination of a snarl and a sneer. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mike’s head come up.
She stopped a little distance from Scarr, disconcerted by the open hostility. “I had an errand to run.”
“Oh?” His tone was milder, but he raised his brows as he stared at her critically. “To where?”
Liz blinked. She had to suppress the urge to giggle as she imagined his reaction if she told him where she’d actually gone. “Does it matter?”
His eyes narrowed. “So you didn’t come over to my camp?”
Too late she realized that he’d given her an out. He expected her to say that she’d borrowed Mike’s truck, then driven miles to find Scarr and report. If she said yes, that’s where she’d gone, he would be mollified, but it would be a lie. And Mike, who could probably hear every word they were saying since his team was close, and Scarr wasn’t bothering to keep his voice down, would feel betrayed.
Choices. Which path should she take? She slid her backpack off her shoulders and took it over to the area where they kept the cooler. Then she knelt to pull out her tools. The actions gave her time to figure out what to do next. She decided she didn’t like Scarr’s tone. He might want an answer, but she wasn’t ready to give him one.
She came back to the dino. “Zac is here every morning, at least for a few minutes. Why have you come today, Dr. Scarr?”
His eyes narrowed. There was a distinct menace in his voice, as he said, “Is there something you want to tell me, Miss Hamilton?”
That irked her. “If you’re going to be formal, it’s Dr. Hamilton. You know that, just like you know that I call you Dr. Scarr because I respect your reputation and your experience.”
His jaw hardened, but he apparently didn’t have a reply that would put her in her place, so she continued on. “Yes, I do have news. Mike and his team excavated the hip joint yesterday. They believe there is good evidence that this creature was a Daspletosaurus.”
“You helped them,” Scarr said.
“Yes, I did.”
“It was not your place to do so!”
Well, put everything out front. If she accepted that statement, she would acknowledge that Scarr made the decisions. That this was his dino.
But it wasn’t. The find was hers and Mike’s and she felt a possessiveness for the ancient beast that roused her temper and made her say, “I think it was. This find may be shared by two permit holders, but it’s one creature. It deserves the best I can give it. If that means helping Mike and Will—sorry, that’s Dr. Laverty—that’s what I’m going to do.”
Fuming, Scarr said, “I’ll remind you that the front half of this animal is on my permit land. I am the lead paleontologist on this dig. I deserved to know that this is a major find.”
“You already knew that,” Liz said, keeping her voice light and her tone mild.
“Yet I found out the details through that ridiculous dino cam feed!” Scarr shouted.
Liz took a step back and bumped against a large, warm body. She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to know it was Mike. Some inner radar told her it was him the moment they touched. She did look though, just to bolster her confidence with his support. She realized that he was staring, no, not staring, but glaring, at Scarr.
“The dino cam is an educational tool that has an audience of tens of thousands,” he said. His eyes were narrowed. His words clipped.
“People who don’t matter,” Scarr retorted, his lip curling into a sneer.
“People like my diggers, Justin and Maggy, who learn what the profession is really about and who decide to dedicate their lives to it because of what they’ve seen. People who are fascinated by dinosaurs and who go to museums and who support the field.” He stopped then very deliberately added, “Spys like you.”
Scarr went purple. There were snickers from behind Mike and even Zac, who was very obviously trying to keep out of the argument, choked on suppressed emotion.
After a minute, Scarr rallied. “Fine words from a man who betrays our scientific endeavors with every bone he sells and every dollar he makes. How much do you expect to get for your portion of the Daspletosaurus, Edmonds? Millions? Are you going to sell it as a full carcass or bone by bone? Which will net you more?”
“He won’t do that,” Liz said, before Mike even opened his mouth to speak. She thought about the sleek, sophisticated institution in her future. She had no proof that the Daspletosaurus would end up there, or that the museum had been created by Mike, but her gut told her both had happened, so she added, “This creature is for study and display and Mike believes in that.”
“Yes,” Scarr said, “because the lawyers will make sure that the university acquires custody of the full skeleton. They’ll never allow it to be given to a marauding amateur like Edmonds.”
“You’re counting chickens,” Mike said. He sounded remarkably calm for a man who had just been insulted.
“He’s as professional as you are,” Liz said steadily.
“He’s a businessman,” Scarr said. The sneer in his voice said he thought the occupation was something vile. “His goal is profit. Everything he does is solely to make himself rich.”
“You don’t worry about funding for your digs, Scarr?” Mike asked. He continued to sound amazingly cool and collected.
“My digs are funded by respectable granting authorities. Government, non-profits, educational charities. Profit isn’t part of their mandate.”
“Those worthy organizations don’t care if you make any finds? They don’t expect to see their names highlighted in the literature as funding bodies that supported the dig?” Mike queried.
Scarr’s nostrils flared. Mike had scored a hit. “That’s different,” he said.
“How?”
Scarr didn’t deign to answer. Thoroughly furious, he turned to Liz. “Think it over, Miss—pardon me! Doctor—Hamilton. You need to decide. Are you part of my team? Or do you want to throw in your lot with Edmonds? Remember,” he added, “if you choose Edmonds your chance to be come something important in the paleontological world is over. You’ll be nothing more than a jobbing digger, like Dr. Laverty here.”
A quick glance at Will told Liz that Scarr’s gibe had struck home, but he set his jaw and didn’t respond. Anger at Scarr’s casual dismissal of people she both liked and respected had her fighting back. “There’s nothing to decide. I am part of your team and that didn’t change because I helped Mike and Will expose the hip. I ha
ve nothing to prove and no decision to make.”
“You’ve been sleeping with the enemy,” Scarr said, more furious than before, if that was possible.
Liz stared at him, horrified. How did he know she’d made love with Mike? His next words made her relax, but only a little.
“Prove you’re part of my team. Move back to my camp. You have until tonight to decide.”
Chapter 19
This was crazy. She knew Scarr was obsessive about this find, that he had a pathological dislike of Mike, and what Scarr thought Mike stood for, but to make accusations like this? “Dr. Scarr, I really don’t think—”
“No, you don’t.” He turned, showing her his back, shutting her out. He edged closer to the skeleton, then turned to face her. “Until you make your decision, stay away from my dinosaur.”
“Your dinosaur?” Mike said from behind her. His voice was silky smooth over an underlay of menace.
Scarr’s eyes narrowed. Clearly he was willing to take up the challenge.
They’d be wrestling in the dirt in a minute. “Okay, fine. I’m going to take the afternoon off. I’ve got some stuff I need to do.” She looked at Mike, then at Scarr. “Things need to cool off here and I think it will happen faster if I’m not around. Dr. Scarr, I’ll let you know my decision later today.”
She turned to walk away.
“Decide carefully,” Scarr said to her back.
She hesitated momentarily. She heard the derision in his voice and knew that he expected her to use her afternoon to pack up her stuff. Part of her was prepared to do exactly that. The other part wanted to turn around and tell him to take his ultimatum and stuff it.
“Liz,” Mike said quietly as she hovered.
She knew what he offered with that single word. Refuge, a place with him. She shook her head, but she softened it with a half smile. “I need to think, Mike. Somewhere private. Do you mind if I borrow your truck again?”
“Go ahead,” he said, but there was despair in his eyes.
She wished she could change that, but she couldn’t, not here. Not now. Scarr had been right, she was sleeping with the enemy and there was no way she would ever let him know how accurate his words had been.
She nodded her thanks, then headed up the path.
She drove back to the empty prairie where the sleek museum of the future would someday stand. Though she parked the truck, she didn’t get out. Nor did she walk toward and into the beacon, though it burned brightly, indicating Mark was working in his lab. Instead she stayed in the truck and thought. Then she called her sister, Faith.
“Hey you, what’s up?” Faith’s voice was disgustingly cheerful, particularly when Liz was facing a decision that would affect the rest of her life in more ways than the obvious one.
“Things are getting tense around here. I need clarity. Do you have time to listen?”
“Always,” Faith said. “Is it about the dig? Or…that gorgeous man you spent the night with in his truck?”
Liz drew a deep breath. She hadn’t talked to Faith since the day she’d called to tell her she had become a Traveler. So much had happened since. “Both,” she said. “And they’re intertwined.”
“Work and gorgeous men,” Faith said. “It happens.”
She was obviously thinking of her relationship with Cody Simpson, which had developed while Faith was the office manager at the company where Cody was the head software developer. “Yeah,” Liz said. “And supervisors tend to get in the way.”
In Faith’s case it had been her manager, Ava, who Liz had nicknamed the tyrant lizard, after T-Rex, the most famous of the carnivorous dinosaurs. Like Scarr, Ava liked control, and to be the one in control, and she could be ruthless in the pursuit of her objective. She had made Faith’s life miserable until Faith climbed out of the box Ava had put her in and taken charge of her own life.
“Did Scarr fire you again?” There was indignation and worry in Faith’s voice.
Liz laughed. Somehow, as she sat here in the middle of nowhere, talking to her sister while she stared at a beacon of light no one but she could see, the dreadful feeling of being trapped eased. “Sort of.” She explained what had happened over the last few days. She didn’t leave anything out, including the night with Mike. She concluded with her visit to the future this morning. “So I don’t know if the Daspletosaurus is what makes my career or if it is something else. On top of that, I know I’m involved in the museum where Mark works, but I don’t know how. It’s on Mike’s land, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s there because of him. Or because of the Daspletosaurus.”
“Mark can’t tell you, you know that, Liz.”
She snorted. “Of course I do. But now I also know how Uncle Andrew felt when he tried to find out what happened between him and Mary Elizabeth. It’s so frustrating! The information’s there, I just don’t know how to tease it out.”
Faith chuckled. “From what you’ve said, you taught Mark well.”
Liz sighed. “I know. It’s annoying. I only have myself to blame. Why didn’t I tell him to fudge his answers? Give me a clue which way I should turn.”
“Don’t you know?” Faith said. It was formed as a question, but it sounded like a statement.
“You think I’ve already made my decision,” Liz said, as her whirling thoughts slowly settled down into a pattern.
“Haven’t you? What did you do when you wanted to sort out your thoughts and feelings?”
Liz stared at the bright, steady light across the prairie. “I came to the Beacon.”
“Exactly. What does that tell you about yourself?”
“I want someone to tell me what I am going to do?”
“Well, I suppose that’s true, but it’s not what I meant.” Faith hesitated. “You’re a risk-taker, Liz.”
“What? No! I’m not. I’m a step-by-step plodder.”
“Yes, you are. When you came into your power, it wasn’t as a Beacon, like I am. It was as a Traveler. Think about it. You walk into a portal hidden in a ball of light, without any assurances that what is on the other side is safe. You didn’t know what you would find, yet you walked through without hesitation.”
“Okay.” Liz said the word slowly, drawing it out. “I get what you’re saying, but what does that have to with my decision and whether it’s made or not?”
“Down at the dig site you had Scarr pressuring you and Mike behind you. He was offering support, but that was a kind of pressure too. What did you do when you wanted to clarify your thoughts? You went to the place where you have taken the greatest risk of your life. Why?”
“I feel peace here.” The words popped out, surprising Liz. It wasn’t what she planned to say. In fact, she didn’t know what she had intended, if anything at all.
“Go with your gut, Liz. Don’t fight the decision you’ve already made, because it isn’t what other people will say you should do.”
She drew in a deep breath, then let it out again with a woosh. “I’m going to stay with Mike.”
Faith laughed. “Figured that.”
“And I’m going to finish excavating my Daspletosaurus.”
“You go, girl!”
“Then I’m going to write and publish the excavation report.”
“I know you will. I believe in you, Liz.”
Liz looked at the glowing beacon and thought about walking into the light. Faith was right. If she had the courage to cross the barrier of time into the future, she could deal with a selfish prig like Scarr. “Thanks for being a sounding board, sis.”
“Anytime. When do we get to meet your Mike?”
“He’s not my Mike yet!”
“Yeah, yeah, so you say.”
She could imagine Faith smirking as she spoke. Sisters, especially know-it-all older sisters, were a pain sometimes. “After the season is over. We can both probably take time off then.”
“Good,” Faith said. She uttered an evil laugh. “Maybe Dad will join us. You can tell him you’re a Traveler. Won’t he be ple
ased?”
Liz laughed. Their father, Daniel, had never reconciled to the exotic talent his wife and daughter Faith possessed. He had long held up Liz as the only other reasonable member of his family.
“Mom’s delighted by the way. She wants to hear all the details. Wait till I tell her there’s even more exciting news.”
“Don’t! I’ll fill her in when I can. Listen, I’m going to go and inform Scarr I won’t live in his box anymore and that he’s welcome to come into the one I’ve designed, but if not…” She shrugged, then realized Faith couldn’t see her. “If not, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s his choice.”
“Have fun,” Faith said. “Call me when you’ve worked it all out.”
“I will.” She disconnected, then stared at the beacon, letting the rightness of her decision seep into her.
Then she started Mike’s truck and headed off, not to the rift, but toward Scarr’s camp.
Chapter 20
She was taking too long. Mike considered, not for the first time, whether he should contact local law enforcement and report Liz missing. Sure, the weather was fine, but accidents happened and cell service was spotty. If she lost control on the road and drove into the ditch the way she had on the night they met… Just the thought of what could have happened made him shudder.
He put the pot containing premade stew onto the burner of the camp stove. It was his turn to cook, which meant he had plenty to do with his hands, but not much for his brain. He was overthinking this. Liz was fine.
Maybe he was fussing about her absence because he couldn’t allow himself to believe that she would choose Scarr over him. There he went, overanalyzing again. If she went back to Scarr’s camp, it would be because she chose a career in academia over a somewhat dubious future with him. He couldn’t blame her for that. She’d worked hard to get her Ph.D. She’d want to make use of it in the best way she could.
