“The rest of you didn’t have a reason to quit.”
That was true. Eve never blamed Eddy for what had happened, but she didn’t blame him for leaving, either. Still, enough time had passed.
“Just hear me out,” Eve said, as she followed Eddy through the back door of the house and into the kitchen.
The kitchen was that of a bachelor: too obsessed with work, girls and video games to bother with dishes. In fact, there wasn’t a real utensil in the entire place. Paper plates, plastic utensils, and beer cans were strewn about the kitchen amidst bags of chips and microwave meals. Not exactly health food, but it didn’t seem to show on Eddy.
Eddy opened the fridge, took out two Sam Adams and tossed one to Eve, who caught it and popped the top on the kitchen counter with a quick smack. She knew the one thing that had always impressed Eddy was that she could keep up with any man in a drinking contest. On certain digs when progress was slow, she had done just that.
Eve took a long swig of the golden brew and wiped her mouth. “It’s a mammoth.”
Eddy paused, beer half way to his lips. His right eyebrow rose high on his forehead. She had him. She knew Eddy was technically the average paleontologist, skilled in excavating dinosaur bones from any environment Earth could conjure, but his passion was in recent extinctions: sabertooth tigers, the giant fossa, giant sloths, giant short faced bears and most important—the mammoth.
“It’s a complete specimen,” Eve stated. “Complete in every way.”
Eddy’s eye twitched. “Where?”
“The Canadian Arctic. A tiny unnamed island, at the northern tip of the Queen Elizabeth Islands. We’ve already sent an advance crew to break through the ice. I’m putting together the second crew for raising and research.”
“And you want me to lead?”
“I was hoping.”
“You know I can’t.”
“We need you. You’re still the best.”
Eddy ran his fingers through his wavy black hair. “Not any more. Not after what happened.”
This plan of attack wasn’t going to do anything but make Eddy mad. Eve had to distract him. Only one thing would work.
“Brian thinks we’ll find viable DNA.”
A statement like that might normally elicit responses about how incredible a discovery viable mammoth DNA would be, the advances in science, the cloning of an extinct creature and visions of Jurassic Park. But for Eddy, the focus was on the first word in Eve’s statement.
He scowled. “Brian Norwood is on the team now?”
“Not on the team. Funding the team.”
“You took a job from him?”
“It is a fully intact mammoth, and he’s paying. A lot.”
“Yeah, but—”
“We both know he’ll eventually raise the mammoth and exploit it the way he always does. The only way to do anything about that it is to be on site.” Eve took a swig of beer. He knew she was right.
“Does he know you’re coming to me?”
“Not a clue.”
Eddy smiled.
“He’s already on site, supervising the prep-team. If you don’t come, I’m afraid he’ll be running the dig, which we both know wouldn’t be good…or safe.”
Eddy took a drink, swished it between his cheeks like mouthwash, and swallowed it with a quick gulp. He rolled his neck around and looked at the ceiling, his thoughts turning to the past.
Eddy had met Eve on a dig when both were still interns. They had spent the summer digging up a tyrannosaur in the Badlands of South Dakota but had paid little attention to the big beast. They had become close friends, but the constant company of other interns and scientists had kept their relationship formal. Eddy had been frustrated by the dig, the dinosaur and every person within ten square miles that kept him from Eve. But then the summer was over and a surprise test was sprung on the group of interns. All their credit for three months of torturous work hung on this one pivotal piece of paper. Eddy scrolled over the paper, glanced at the ten questions and panicked. He knew the answers to six or seven; the rest eluded him. He wouldn’t be getting an A+, but he’d pass…he thought. He asked Dr. Ludlum, the professor who masterminded the sneak attack, how many correct answers were passing.
Ludlum leaned over from his perch up on the rock and looked down at Eddy, peering over his glasses. “Now, Edward. These are elementary questions that you should know if you were paying even the slightest amount of attention during the last three months. If you get any answers wrong it means you were spending your time here getting a tan, or worse, chasing after girls. I intend to weed out the weak this year and set an example for future students. This is not a summer vacation. This is work.”
Eddy smiled casually. “Just wondering.”
He walked away as his heart began to pound wildly beneath his ribcage. He had spent a fortune and gone into serious debt to pay his own way through his long stretch of education and now, because of one class, he might fail. He’d have to start again…or give up. Eddy made up his mind right then to do the only thing he knew would save him—he cheated.
He sat on a rock above an average student; not the best and brightest, that would have been suspicious. But if Dr. Ludlum was correct and these answers were that easy, any student, save him, should do the trick. Eddy wore his sunglasses so no one could see where his eyes were and peered over Richard Sidmore’s shoulder, copying the answers as quick as he could. Richard stood and walked away before Eddy could finish. He was one answer away from the end! Eddy read the final question while he held his breath. Then a smile came to his face and he laughed. He knew the answer.
Eddy passed Dr. Ludlum’s test, but had let Eve distract him so badly that he had almost screwed up his career by failing one lousy test. After a long night of tossing and turning, Eddy decided that he couldn’t allow himself to become that distracted again. He knew he wanted to work in the field, to lead expeditions into dangerous territories, but if he allowed his attention to wander, next time Richard Sidmore might not be there to save him. His friendship with Eve had remained strong, but it had never gone any further, no matter how strong his feelings might have grown.
Eddy snapped back to the present, a forlorn look on his face, and said, “We take no risks, no shortcuts. We do things my way or no way at all.”
Eve closed her eyes, relieved by his answer. She was smiling, but she was also dealing with other emotions brought up by his affirmative answer. There were a million things she wanted to say and not one of them had to do with the job, but two kept repeating in her mind like a scratched CD: I missed you. I love you.
“You won’t regret it,” Eve said.
“You might.”
Eddy looked at his watch, then toward the front windows, viewable through the living room.
“You expecting somebody?” Eve asked.
“Well, let’s just say you could have picked a better time to stop by.”
Eve’s brilliant mind flashed through a number of scenarios, as it was prone to do, and froze on one of them. A woman was coming and Eddy didn’t want them to meet! She had to know. She did her best to sound innocent of anything more than dull curiosity. “Who’s coming?”
“Contrary to your initial assessment, I wasn’t working on the Mustang for fun. I was trying to get it running at a speed higher than fifty miles per hour.”
Eve’s forehead wrinkled. “Why?”
“To run.”
“Run? Run from whom?”
Eddy nodded toward the living room window facing the road. “From them.”
Eve hurried into the living room and peered out the dust covered window. She saw a pickup truck from which four very large hicks dressed in overalls and T-shirts poured out. “It took you two whole years to piss off the locals? I think that’s a record.”
Eddy stood next to Eve and looked at the four ominous men, who were now retrieving shotguns from the truck bed. “I think you’re right,” Eddy said.
Eve didn’t seem concerned by the men. The
y’d escaped worse situations.
“Who are they?” Eve asked.
“They were giving two friends of mine some trouble, physicist types from LightTech Labs, so naturally I lent a hand and aided their escape.”
Eve gave Eddy a questioning glance.
He smiled. “They got into a fight at a local dive. Tom’s a fighter, but David didn’t stand a chance. I tackled two of them and…then I slashed their tires.”
Eve stood back from the window. “Leave it to you to get into a brawl with a bunch of pig farmers and two physicists.”
“Gotta fill the time somehow.” Eddy smiled. “How do you want to do this?”
Eve sighed and tossed him her keys. “I’ll distract them. You get my Jeep.”
Eddy smiled wide, enjoying himself. “That’s my girl.”
Eve’s stomach churned at his words. She watched him head out the back door. What spell did that man have on her?
Muffled voices outside regained her attention. The four large men were headed toward the door, holding their shotguns high. Eve took a deep breath, pulled her tight white T-shirt up and tied it in a knot below her breasts, accentuating her curves. She tugged at her shorts, lowering them and flaunting her taut, toned belly. She felt like a cross between a teenage tramp and a southern hussy, but she knew it would get the job done.
The front door flung open and Eve stood in the doorway, leaning with one arm up and the other resting on her exposed hipbone. The four men froze. “Now what are four strong men like ya’ll doing way out here?”
Silence. Maybe she’d killed them with more stimulation than their minds received in a good decade. She moved forward and noticed that all four men’s eyes were locked on her breasts. It seemed the only women these men saw were their moms and the gals in Hustler.
She heard the engine of her Jeep roar to life at the side of the house. The four men turned toward the noise and raised their weapons. They seemed to have one-track minds. She’d have to keep those minds on her. Eve yawned loudly, stretching her arms in the air and pushing her chest out. Each man’s attention snapped back to her. One of them dropped his shotgun along with his jaw. He didn’t attempt to pick up either.
The Jeep surged out from the side of the house and careened over two cacti as Eddy steered the vehicle into the front yard, on a collision course with the four assailants. He nearly crashed into the house when he saw Eve stretching her shapely body but managed to avoid the house and stay on course.
Fat men wearing overalls never moved so fast. They sprawled to the ground to avoid being struck by the Jeep. Eddy skidded to a stop in front of Eve and popped open the passenger’s side door. “Your limousine has arrived, Miss Spears.”
Eve climbed in and said, “This stays between you and me.”
“Of course.”
“Promise?”
“You know you can trust me.”
Eve smiled, leaned over, and kissed Eddy on the cheek. His eyes closed and he leaned toward her lips. He accepted her kiss! True, it was only on the cheek, but it was a kiss nonetheless. Eve wasn’t sure if it was because of the excitement of the moment, the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in two years or the other, more frightening option…but there wasn’t time to ask.
Eddy hit the gas and spun the wheels of the Jeep, spewing piles of dirt and sand onto the four men, who rolled on the ground like wallowing swine. They were on the road and miles away in two minutes. Safe from harm…and better than that, they were together again. Eve didn’t care about the dig anymore. The mammoth was insignificant. The money was pointless. Even if the entire expedition failed, she already had what she wanted—Eddy. Now she just had to figure out a way to hold on to him permanently.
3
RELATIONS
The frigid Canadian air bit at Eddy’s skin and clung to his nostrils.
“It’s freezing!” Eddy said through chattering teeth.
Eve stifled a laugh. “All that Arizona sunshine must have thinned your blood.”
Eddy smirked and looked up at the large hanger bay before him. It loomed in the snow, a massive metal structure with a curved roof, like half of a monstrous can of coffee emerging from the Earth. The structure alone impressed Eddy. The size told him two things: First, there was a lot of equipment inside, and that was always a good thing. Second, Norwood was at least spending a lot of money on this little project, which meant it would get done right. And that was just the way Eddy liked it.
Eddy turned around and looked toward the horizon, white and cold as far as the eye could see—an empty stretch of the Canadian North just three miles south of Cambridge Bay. The blanket of snow was brilliant, and Eddy found himself squinting even through his sunglasses. It was beautiful, the way the sun played off the gleaming snow, and the blue sky looked as though you could touch it. But it looked cold, too. And cold meant danger. Danger meant death. And Eddy wouldn’t accept that again. It would destroy him.
“Listen,” Eddy said, making sure Eve was looking him in the eyes, which she was—intently. “Before we head out, I want extra everything. Fuel. First aid. Food. Everything. Have Steve get as much as he thinks we’ll need, then double it.”
“Already taken care of.”
Eddy bit his lip. Was she trying to ease his nerves or telling the truth? “Last time I was unprepared.”
Eve walked to a small box next to the hanger doors, opened it, and began punching in numbers. After hitting the final button, Eve closed the box and stood back. “Eddy, I promise, this time…”
The large doors clunked as they unlocked and began sliding open with a loud whirring sound.
“…we’re prepared for anything,” Eve finished.
Eyes wide, Eddy stared into the hanger. Norwood wasn’t spending a lot of money. He was spending a fortune. When Eve told him Norwood was paying the work crew fifty thousand dollars a piece, he did his best not to choke. That was more than Eddy made in a year—a good year. When she told him that the research team would be getting one hundred fifty thousand, he did choke, and she had to give him a smack on the back to dislodge his pizza.
But this…this was more than Eddy expected, even with the generous stipend. A large airplane, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules turboprop, sat at the center of the hanger. First built in 1954, the beast was an enormous, four prop transport plane, used to move heavy equipment and personnel but rarely scientific expeditions—not the ones Eddy had been on, anyway. It was in near-new condition with red stripes down both sides and a large, maroon maple leaf on the tail. It was beautiful, and more than that, it could fly in even the worst weather.
Eddy’s eyes darted around the room and took in the rest of the equipment. There were four Sno-Cats that looked like a cross between tractors and UFOs—powerful beasts with four tank tread-like appendages, capable of speeding through deep snow. These Cats had been modified to carry extra crew and equipment. They were large, square, and covered with thick windows. A logo was painted on everything: Norwood Expeditions. Norwood had gone commercial. Interesting.
A fleet of snowmobiles, maybe twenty, was lined up at the side of the room, every one connected to a trailer on skis. They would be hauling a veritable city with them. Eddy smiled. This was going to be more like vacation than a dig.
Eddy stepped into the hanger, still impressed, when shouting voices struck his ears. He gave Eve a questioning glance. She shrugged.
Eddy headed for the commotion. He rounded a Sno-Cat, letting his hand drift across its solid treads, smelling the oil that kept its parts friction-free. Three people stood arguing in front of him. Two of them he knew. The other was a stranger. Eve stood next Eddy, crossed her arms, and waited. Eddy guessed she wanted to see how he would handle the situation. She stood to the side and motioned with her hand for Eddy to have at it.
The stranger, a fiery woman with smooth brown skin and deep brown eyes, fumed at the two men. In appearance she was Japanese, but her accent gave her away. Southern California. Great, Eddy thought, who hired the valley girl?
> “This stuff is on rental, you idiots! Break it and your ass is grass!” the woman spouted.
“Technically, that would be ‘asses’ are grass. Plural.” That was Steve. Long, wavy, red hair hung half way down his back. When hair bands went out of style, Steve managed to hang on to his mop. His face was covered in sporadic patches of unshaven stubble. He thought that if he waited long enough, it might start to grow in other areas. He was an incessant jokester, but he knew how to get the best equipment and how to get it cheap. He made keeping the team together more affordable and usually made sure they traveled in style. His presence on site wasn’t always in high demand, but he insisted on coming along, just in case. Eddy believed he really came along to hit on any cute college interns that might happen to join the crew.
“Yeah, lady, cut us some slack. We ain’t slaves, you know.” That would be Paul: Italian to the bone and with more hair on his fingers than on his head. He and Steve were chums from their first meeting, when they argued over which character from The Matrix trilogy was more attractive: Trinity or Neo. It ended with a slew of homosexual accusations and they’d been the best of friends since. Paul was an equipment specialist. If Steve could buy it or rent it, Paul could drive it. They generally fixed equipment as a team, though Paul would say he did all the work. They kept the team mobile and connected to the world, but they weren’t always the most careful pair.
Eddy cleared his throat. The group stopped shouting and looked at him. The valley girl just looked annoyed that another insolent man had barged into the argument, but Steve and Paul looked stunned.
Paul’s jaw dropped. “Eddy?”
Steve’s eyes lit up. He grabbed Eddy and hugged him tight. “Eddy! My man!”
Eddy laughed and picked Steve up off the ground, thrilled to see his old friends. He separated from Steve and gave Paul a strong handshake.
Steve looked at Eve, smiling. “And here I doubted you. I really didn’t think you’d get him back.”
Raising the Past Page 3