Morning all. I hope your November Novel-ing is going well. I have noticed the first casualty of November. It is always the same. I start out with chapter breakouts and I generally put them in for the first two chapters. Then I forget to add the chapters in as I work. I have now crested more than 17K words and I think I only marked two chapters down. It happens every time I do a project like this. Breaking it into actual chapters will come in the editing phase but I know it could bother some of you trying to pair it with the outline. In my outline Act 2 starts with their arrival on the site, so I think this is more or less the day of writing that enters us into Act 2.
Day 10
Finally, the semester ended. All of his papers were graded and the results were sent to those waiting for them. He and the core of the team loaded the gear into the van that would be taking them to the site. While there were fifteen people in total for the season, he and five of his students would be arriving first and setting up their base camp.
While the nearby village would provide them with a place to store their finds as they ferried them out of the dig site, they would be staying on site. Ames hated sending the finds off to a secondary location while the dig was ongoing but knew it was necessary. Even though he was certain the site extended beyond the main section they would be concentrating on that main section and trying to get it cleared and recorded before the season was over and the rainy season threatened the site.
Even with the restricted section, the site was a large one. They would dig and record what they found, photographing and mapping as they went. They would tag items and sift through the spill to get even the tiniest of decorative beads. They would even do floatation separation so they could collect the charred husks of any cereal grains found at the site. He even had someone on his team who would make certain samples were collected so pollen could later be teased out and studied.
They would not have the time to properly clean and study any of the larger finds. They would collect anything portable, possibly with the dirt in and around the object, and ship it back to be cleaned and studied off season. Their focus had to be on the physical structure of the site they couldn’t move, just in case it was destroyed.
Ames tried to think of it as delayed gratification. Later he would get to study whatever finds they made in the field. He tried to think of the benefits. To get everything done each of them would need to work in their own sectors. He would make certain to circle through them, to inspect, to assist, but he couldn’t be everywhere at once. He would have his own sector to focus on.
‘And back in the lab I will have the thrill of discovery as the items emerge from the dirt,’ he told himself. Any concerns or fears he might have had regarding Folson’s wrist or he markings on it, faded under the excitement as they started out. It was always this way for him, the lure of discovery. Later he would lament that he could not report all his findings, but he would make certain that he wrote up his own review based on his research. It would go on a thumb drive and even if he couldn’t publish it, he would make certain it was as professionally edited as though it was going to be published.
For now, there was the thrill of discovery.
Most of the trip was taken along the major interterritorial roads. They left the city an headed off to the outer reaches of the Thestan province. At first, they passed signs for towns and villages, the exits flashing by at regular intervals. Sometimes they could see the buildings in the town from the main road, other times the exit lead only to another road that would eventually lead to a village or town.
They had enough fuel to make the three hour drive without stopping so the signs simply flashed by. As they drove the signs began to be spaced farther and farther apart. Ames knew that before they hit the Pascar Mountains there was a large swath of agricultural land. Once through the fields and the towns where those who worked those fields lived, they would pass through a wide area of LMC land.
It was originally designed to prevent the spread of farms into the foothills of the Pascar Mountains. Ames knew some of that was due to water management and territorial control. He also knew that thee were several ancient religious sites, some pre empire, most early empire, in the area. The protection of these sites was part of the LMC’s mandate. Reading the history of the time and putting the LNC’s establishment with the events of the time Ames knew it was considered more politic to claim the preservation of the sites rather than the limiting of the spread of private land ownership.
‘They didn’t want a repeat of the Cult of Gerach,’ Ames thought as the vehicle trundled on. He was a passenger in the front vehicle with a driver who preferred to listen to the radio to talking with him. Ames happily obliged by staying silent and letting the driver choose the music. He seemed happy enough with the arrangement so the atmosphere was convivial and let Ames sink into his own thoughts. The other vehicles were behind them with a similar arrangement of driver and archaeologist and he hoped they did well enough to cause no issues on the drive.
They left early and missed much of the city traffic. Once past the city limits anything called traffic dried to a trickle and as all of the other vehicles were behind them, Ames felt as though he and his driver were heading off into an unoccupied corner of the province.
‘Which is sort of true I suppose,’ Ames thought. For a time it felt as though no one else existed. Then finally came the signs for the construction of the medical facility. Ames blinked in surprise at the sight of it as they passed. Even his taciturn guard whistled at the sight.
“Ain’t that something,” he said. “All the way out here.”
“It is more than I expected,” Ames confessed. “I looked up the details but I didn’t quite expect that.”
The area was alive with construction vehicles moving things about. Trees were cleared, land scraped back with dirt and vegetation piled along the side of the site. Ames assumed it would be used as filler at some point much as he and his team would used the sifted dirt as back fill before they left their site.
‘Except we are filling in the holes we dug in the hopes of preserving the site underground during the rainy seasons and I expect theirs will be landscaping of some sort.’
“All this for a rural hospital?” The driver asked. He shook his head incredulously.
“Only part is for the hospital,” Ames said. “The rest is a private medical facility, mostly for elective surgeries.”
The driver snorted. “Rich people healing from their beauty enhancements where no one can see them until they are fabulous,” he said. The driver nodded. “That makes more sense than the rural hospital. This part of the province has only a could thousand residents scattered through the area. Wouldn’t make sense for something that large if it was just for them.”
“True. A research facility would have made sense too I suppose.”
“I don’t think research pays as well Doc,” the driver told him.
Ames laughed. “I can tell you from experience, it does not.”
They continued past the construction site and nature again enclosed them. The movement and sounds of the site faded and they continued on. For a long stretch thee were no town sites, not exits no turn offs. Ames began to think they missed their exit.
He recalled the comments Folson made about the flooding and thought the site would be closer to the construction zone. ‘Otherwise how would they have come across it?’
Ames could see the Pascar Mountains in the distance and could see they were approaching a formation that looked similar to the photographs he studied, but they were still in the distance.
He couldn’t see a reasonable explanation as to why they would be investigated. Ames tried not to frown as he sorted through the information he was given. What Folson said made sense logically as it was stated. The distance made the explanation sound like a lie.
‘Or justification,’ Ames thought, recalling the mark. He wondered when Folson received the mark. There was of course no way to know short of asking him and Ames didn’t think he would be doing that anytime in the near future.
Eventually they saw the town sign and Ames relaxed. They could take their exit and Ames saw that the main road veered away from the mountains, heading off out of Thesan Province and into Holco Provence.
The exit off the main road was a bit rough. They bumped and thumped onto the route they needed. It was a rural route and as they exited Ames found the town wasn’t actually near the main road at all. For a moment he thought they would be doubling back towards the construction site using some of the back roads. He almost felt bad for thinking Folson was a liar.
Then the road angled back towards the mountains taking them deeper into the less inhabited sections and further from the construction site. They were on the rural route for a good forty-five minutes. The road seemed to worsen the farther away from the main road they got and Ames had the impression that it wasn’t well maintained. He wondered if it was on purpose or if it was just some accident of the rural province being pushed to the back of the road crew list because there were too few to complain.
‘Maybe a little from column A and a little from column B,’ he decided. Ames felt thoroughly rattled by the time they turned off the rural route and into an even smaller road that led to the actual town. It was a further twenty mites and by the time they pulled up into the main street of town Ames let as though his eyes were going to be rattled out of their sockets.
‘Along with all my teeth,’ he thought.
The truck reached the main street, indeed the only street in town and pulled up in front of the largest building on the street. It was, as advertised an old industrial site. It had its own parking lot but there was a chain across the entrance. Before the driver could turn off the engine, a round little man came running out of one of the buildings across the street. He bounced and jiggled as he half jogged, half speed walked across the street. He held a silver key aloft as though it was a sword from the days of knights.
The key bearer reached the chain barring the trucks from the parking lot behind the industrial building. With a flourish he unlocked the padlock holding it in place and took the chain away from the entrance, bundling it up on one side. It felt to the asphalt covered ground with a series of metallic clinks. He waved the trucks through and the driver put the vehicle back into gear and drove into the parking lot. He parked and the vehicles following Ames likewise followed into the parking lot.
‘We look like an invasion force,’ Ames thought. As the other vehicles parked he decided he better talk to the man with the key and assure him that they came in peace.
“I’ll just wait here,” the driver said as Ames reached for the door handle.
“Probably for the best,” Ames replied. He opened the door, slid out of the vehicle and closed the door behind him. As he walked over he recalled that the only name he was given was the name of the city council chair.
‘Here’s hoping it’s Mr. Bouncy,’ he thought as he walked over.
The round man was still grasping the key and studying the large trucks with open curiosity.
“Councilor Trovan?” Ames asked walking over. The man blinked and turned looking over.
His face split into a wide grin. “And you mist be Dr. Stosia,” the councilor replied.
