Paradox: On the Sharp Edge of the Blade

by E. S. Martell

  “Looks like rain. Just what we need,” Rick said, bitterly. He was perspiring more than usual. It had gotten very humid and overcast during the late afternoon.

  Ralph shrugged and answered, “Maybe. Bet they won't let us have a rain day.”

  Logan hadn't considered that. The idea of trying to dig in the rain didn't seem appealing.

  “No, they know that too much water will mess up the context. We'll probably cover the important grids with canvas flies. That way we can work under shelter,” Rick replied.

  Ralph shrugged again and said, “Maybe. Hey, wanna play cards?”

  .The other guys met the suggestion with enthusiasm. They pulled up their cots, and prepared for the nightly game.

  Logan sat on his cot, watching.

  Toby glanced at him. “Hey, Logan. Want to play?”

  At least that was some progress, getting invited to join in, but he shook his head negatively. “No, I'm no good at cards. Besides, I'm going to study a little. I need to understand what I'm doing a little better.”

  Rick laughed, and then said, “At least you're doing something different. We're still supposed to be digging. I'd like to stick that shovel up Dameron's butt.”

  The others laughed and Toby said, “Yeah, but that Mandi would probably kick your ass. I hear she's some kind of major martial artist or something.”

  Rick made a fruity chuckle. “I'd like to see her try. It'd give me an excuse to get my hands on her.”

  The others laughed again, and bantered back and forth until the conversation turned to the start of the card game.

  Logan rolled over, opened his textbook and pretended to read, while he considered. If the others were still digging, it could be that Dameron believed that he had some promise. Actually, it was more likely that Dameron was just trying to put him in a situation where he'd screw up. That would mean that he probably wouldn't pass, and that meant... He sighed. Better study for real. Maybe he could teach himself what he needed to know.

  There was a terrific flash outside, followed by a roll of thunder. The storm had opened right over their heads. The next minute, the tent walls sagged as the rain roared down on them. The noise was so intense that Logan couldn't hear the continuing game. He read for a while, then gradually drifted off to sleep.

  When he awoke, the tent was dark. From the snoring noises, the others had finished their game, and were now trying to recharge for tomorrow's work. The rain had stopped and it was quiet outside. Logan lay there listening to the sporadic dripping noise from the nearby trees. After trying unsuccessfully to get back to sleep, he realized that he needed to relieve himself.

  He pulled on his pants, stepped into his shoes, and quietly headed for the row of portable toilets. As he was exiting the toilet, he saw a movement in the darkness. It was a figure walking across the campground, heading towards Dameron's tent.

  Logan paused, watching. Whoever it was didn't hesitate at the tent flap. The person opened it minimally, and slid through. He shrugged to himself, probably none of his business. He started back towards his tent, but driven by curiosity, he found his path deviating towards the back of Dameron's.

  If he were going to spy, he might as well do it right. He walked quietly to the back of the professor's tent, taking care not to cast any shadows on the fabric. Quietly brushing at some mosquitoes that had found him, Logan crouched down, trying to avoid being observed, and listened.

  There was no noise at first, but then he heard some sounds. He'd assumed there might be speaking, but this was like something else. As he listened it gradually dawned on him that the sounds were made by a couple having sex.

  The two were quiet, but at one point the girl moaned. Then he distinctly heard Dameron say, “Oh, Mandi...” followed by some whispered words that were indistinct.

  Logan jerked at that revelation, then sneaked off, circling far around the camp and coming up to his own tent from behind. He checked to make sure he wasn't observed, then entered, and got back in his cot, feeling somehow hurt and jealous.

  After he considered it for a while, he told himself that it didn't matter. She'd never be interested in him anyway. That helped his hurt feelings, and put the tryst into a different perspective.

  Still, it was quite interesting. He knew for a fact that Dameron was married. But Mandi was really attractive. Their involvement was definitely against the school's code of conduct. It went a long way towards explaining Mandi's position and her constant hovering around the professor.

  He tried to put it out of his mind, but some jealous part of him continued to refuse to let it go. How could Dameron take advantage of a student? And, how could she think an almost middle-aged man was so attractive?

  He eventually concluded that he'd never understand women. He might not be the best Tae-kwon-do student, but at least he was about her age. He wondered if he should tell her about his prospective inheritance. Would that make a difference? Probably not. Then his habit of reticence took over. It was always best to keep one's mouth shut about finances.

  After breakfast, he returned to his grid square. The sand was damp, but the water had soaked in and there were only a few puddles. There was a lot of work to be done to get down to the level they were targeting. This was complicated by the fact that there were more recent artifacts scattered across the site. It had been in almost continuous use over the centuries. They couldn't simply dig down to the ten thousand year level. In so doing, they'd probably miss some of the recent stuff, and that might be important.

  He decided to continue to take his grid down in sections. He'd work at the northwest section first, since it was closest to the known finds. Once he'd lowered it to the target depth, he'd then start moving into the northeast part.

  Logan had made some good progress by lunchtime. He'd carefully troweled and brushed his way down to almost the target depth in a small area. As he was trudging across the site towards the dining fly, there was a flurry of alarmed shouts from a distant group.

  He recognized Rick's voice in the mix and turned towards the sound. The distant group was scampering away from something. Logan trotted over to see what was going on.

  “Hey, Logan, don't go over there,” Rick shouted. He'd stopped at a safe distance, and was now looking back. “There's a coral snake under some dried leaves back there.”

  Logan was curious. He had never been worried about snakes. He'd seen a lot of them, although he'd never seen a coral snake. He cautiously approached the spot. There was a pile of dried leaves, and there was the tail of a brightly colored snake sticking out from under the pile. He bent over to investigate more closely.

  The tail was black with yellow bands. He moved the covering leaves carefully with a small stick. The band pattern changed as it reached the main part of the snake's body. It became yellow-red-yellow-black, then repeated. It was definitely a small coral snake. Logan stepped back, and looked around. His tent mates were tightly clustered about twenty feet away, looking like a family of alert meerkats, their eyes wide and fearful.

  A student that Logan didn't know came up carrying a shovel. Before Logan could say anything, the man swung the shovel at the snake, cutting it in half with a hard blow.

  Logan was outraged. The poor animal hadn't posed a threat. It could be easily relocated. He'd been ready to retrieve a plastic bag for that purpose. He started to say something, but shut his mouth with a snap as Dameron arrived.

  The professor said, “Alright. The excitement's over. Go and eat. We'll start digging on schedule, so you don't have much time, if you want to be fed.”

  The student scooped the remains of the snake onto the shovel, took it to the edge of the dig site, and buried it in a shallow hole. Logan watched the operation without moving.

  Dameron, who had started back, turned, saw Logan, and said, “Go on! I meant it, Walker. You're just a screw-up.”

  Logan didn't reply, instead he strode to the dining fly, gathered up some food, and retreated to his grid square where he settled in the sand to have his lunc
h.

  It wasn't fair to the snake, but he guessed that was about what he could expect out of the group. Dameron wasn't fair to him either. It was disgusting and he was of half a mind to leave, only the promise of his inheritance kept him sitting there. He calmed down as he chewed.

  He ate quickly, and was back at work before the others had finished their lunch.

  Chapter 5: DISCOVERY AND TROUBLE

  The sun burned down. People from northern latitudes generally didn't understand just how strong the sun was in the south. Some of the students from other states had already gotten sunburned.

  Logan was wearing a broad-brimmed hat and had sunscreen on his exposed skin, but it was still hot and humid. He was dripping with sweat. His clothes were saturated and he was covered with muddy dirt and sand.

  To top it off, there were a bunch of yellow flies in the area. The cursed things kept circling, looking for an opportunity. They'd shoot in, land on an exposed piece of skin, and bite instantly. They were so fast that it was almost impossible to swat them. Luckily, he wasn't allergic to the painful bites. A couple of the other students had huge, swollen patches where they'd been bitten.

  The only good thing was that it was too hot and bright for mosquitoes during the day. The nights were a different story. Everyone was glad for the university-provided mosquito netting.

  The first summer session was nearly over and the dig was mostly on schedule. Logan had developed a good farmer's tan. His face, neck and arms had turned red, then gradually changed to a light walnut brown.

  The main center of activity was still well away from his assignment. Dameron hadn't wanted him here, and when forced to accept his presence, had stuck him in his distant grid square.

  Logan had taken to talking to himself quietly as he worked. The others were at least fifty yards away, and he was isolated. Over the days, he had worked up a level of frustration and anger that he was barely able to contain.

  he thought disgustedly. Just what Dameron wants, He'd like me to get discouraged and quit, or maybe make some kind of serious mistake. Then he'd flunk me.

  The only benefit of his anger was that he was now determined to stick it out and earn a passing grade.

  He was finishing off the last quarter of his grid square. He'd carefully logged the few items he'd discovered that looked like they might be related to humans. There hadn't been much, no large burned bones or sticks, no interesting stone tools, no carvings, basically nothing. There had been a few chips of stone and bone that might or might not be man-made. That was all that he'd found in the days he'd been working on the area. It was pretty discouraging.

  He was working on the last part of the quarter grid, cutting down an uneven lump in the edge of his excavation. There were no signs of prior disturbance of the soil, no pits, no digging, nothing.

  “Just this one spot to go,” he whispered.

  The trowel hit something with a clink. Logan carefully brushed and scraped the soil away. Maybe this was important. He worked carefully, gradually exposing the middle of the thing. It seemed to be sticking out of the grid square wall. He worked from the partly exposed middle towards both ends. The odd thing was, it was very regular and apparently made of metal.

  It was old and somewhat pitted, but there was a little shine. “If I didn't know better, I'd say it was some kind of stainless steel,” he muttered. He stood up and looked around to see if he was the butt of some prank. No one was nearby, and no one was even looking in his direction, so that was probably out. He continued digging, scraping the soil back to expose more of the item.

  Once he'd uncovered four inches of it, he stopped, wiped his face, and tried to decide what to do. It was obviously man-made, and it shouldn't be where it was. It looked for all the world like a knife blade. Moreover, it was a steel knife blade with a tanto point.

  Logan knew about this kind of knife because of his gaming. It was one of the first weapons available to new players and he'd been so enamored of it that he'd used it in the game even when better weapons became available. He didn't actually care for real knives much, though.

  He told himself, “If I dig it out, Dameron won't believe that I found it here in this undisturbed dirt. I'd like to look at it to verify that I'm right about what it is, but maybe it would be better to go and get Mandi, at least, to come over when I dig it out. Maybe Dameron should be here?”

  He made a tentative swipe at the thing with his brush, intending to clean a little more dirt off. A clump of soil dropped to the bottom of the trench exposing another object. He leaned close to inspect the second thing. It looked like the base of a Clovis spear point. The shape was right, complete to the fluting in the middle of the point. Possibly a little over half of it was exposed. Logan was excited. This was the first real artifact he'd discovered. He reached out for it, intending to remove it, but then hesitated.

  The spear point was exactly the same depth as the knife blade and it wasn't over a half inch distant. It must have been dropped there at the same time the knife was dropped. But that was impossible. There was no such thing as steel thirteen thousand years ago. Somehow the knife must have been placed recently. If only he could figure out how.

  He shook his head tiredly. It was too hot to think logically. He climbed out of the hole, and stood still for a moment. He made up his mind and headed for the far side of the dig. Mandi was standing over there, apparently berating some unlucky student who'd irritated her.

  He got close enough to hear her snap, “Get back to work!”

  He stopped, struck by an idea. As if she had been speaking to him, he swiveled, and returned to his grid square.

  He was not into the selfie craze or much into social media and rarely used the camera on his phone. He'd almost forgotten about it He opened his cell phone, and then crouched down to take a series of pictures of the two artifacts and the soil surrounding them. Then he headed back to tell Mandi about the discovery. Lucky that I thought of this. .

  As he approached her, he saw Dameron coming from the other direction. he told himself. Huh, might as well tell them both at the same time,

  Dameron arrived just before him, started to speak to Mandi, and then stopped as Logan walked up.

  He looked briefly at Logan, and said, “Mr. Walker, shouldn't you be over there at work?” Then he turned to Mandi critically. “You need to keep these guys working or we'll never finish this project.”

  She frowned at Logan, then said, “Get back to work, Walker. Break time is at least an hour away.”

  Logan stopped and looked from one to the other. He said, “I'm still working. I've found something that I think you should see.”

  Dameron cocked his head. “What is it? Something important, I hope. You should know enough about what we're looking for by now not to be wasting my time.”

  Logan had already turned and was heading back to the spot. He said over his shoulder, “I think it's important.”

  The knife, for so it turned out to be, was heavily pitted and worn. There might once have been some kind of handle on the tang, but it had rotted away. There was an indented area on the base of the blade that looked as if it might have been a manufacturer's imprint and another indefinable set of marks on the other side that might have been stamped into the metal.

  The professor had unceremoniously pulled the spear point from the dirt, glanced at it, and dropped it into his pocket. Logan tried to object that he hadn't recorded it yet, but by the time he'd formulated what he was going to say, it was too late.

  Unfortunately, the net effect of his discovery was not what Logan had hoped for. Dameron was angry, and threatened to flunk him.

  Mandi ventured the idea that he must have planted the knife, thinking he'd get a good grade for finding something important.

  Dameron looked at her to see if she was serious, then he snapped, “Even Walker isn't stupid enough to think that a Clovis site would have a stainless steel knife. Someone must have buried it here. Then again, maybe he did plant it.” He looked sharply at Logan, t
hen asked, “What do you think, Walker? Is this your idea of a joke? Messing with the site is grounds for me kicking you off the dig.”

  Logan vehemently denied having anything to do with the knife's placement. “Look Professor Dameron, the soil over it wasn't disturbed. You saw that, and you also saw that it couldn't have been poked into the edge of the cut. It was definitely buried there.”

  Finally, Dameron grudgingly admitted that it looked like Walker was telling the truth.

  By then it was time to knock off for the day. Dameron took possession of the knife, then he and Mandi headed back to his tent. Logan went through the process of logging the find, even though he felt kind of silly doing so. It was obviously out of context where he'd found it, but still, it had been there. Nothing was said about the spear point. Logan had hoped to have a chance to brag about it before he turned it in, but that was obviously out.