Artifact

by Gregory Benford

  “Boston University doesn’t precisely ‘rule’ me, Alexandros.”

  “Ohi, ohi. Your government. The men behind it. And those who act for you at the International Monetary Fund. They oppress unfavored nations like ours.”

  “One little joint expedition—”

  “It will be felt. Diplomacy is subtle, my dear.”

  As subtle as you? Claire thought derisively. But kept her face impassive.

  They reached the pottery sorting tent. He held the flap for her with a formal, sweeping gesture. They ducked into its yellowish aura of collecting warmth. “Iced tea?” Claire offered, opening their tiny refrigerator.

  He nodded. “I hope you see this was not policy I made.”

  “You had a hand in it.”

  He shrugged. “I assure you, I mean nothing bad to you.”

  “Sure,” Claire said sarcastically before she could catch herself. George had pretty well proved that approach didn’t work.

  “I did not! Not to such a fine, lovely woman? Impossible, for a man, for a Greek.”

  “All those who are not Greeks are barbarians?” Claire asked lightly, pouring the tea and sitting at a sorting table. Bits of pottery were arrayed according to size, curvature, glaze and other properties on the tabletop grid. Automatically her eyes strayed over the pieces, searching for connections, fragments that might meet. The past was a jigsaw puzzle and you never had all the pieces.

  Kontos smiled broadly, liking this shift in the conversation. “Me, I do not think like Aristotle. My foreign colleagues are very close to me.” He demonstrated by touching his chest.

  “Not so close you would go to bat for us with the Ministry?”

  He smiled, puzzled. “Go to bat for…?”

  “Support us.”

  He spread his hands expressively. “One mere man cannot do the impossible. We are civilized.”

  “Then why don’t we start being civilized, by sticking to our agreement.”

  Kontos sighed theatrically and sipped his tea. “You appreciate, mine is only one voice. Still…I might be able to do something.”

  “Good.”

  “Only, you understand, because of our personal relation. You are a charming woman and I have very much enjoyed working with you on this site. Indeed, the abrasions from such as George and the other Americans—they are not like you. They cannot see out of their little boxes, do not see the world as it is becoming.”

  “There is some truth to that,” Claire said politely. Her years of experience in the Mediterranean had prepared her for the steady leftward drift in Greece. The American press now had prepared her for Greece’s hardening stance. The economic slide of the late 1990s had been worse along the eastern Mediterranean. Robotization in Europe had sent Greek laborers home, where they became a disgruntled irritant, calling for stronger measures. The centrist parties had little to offer them. Gripped in another chronic financial crisis, the US-backed International Monetary Fund was not likely to bail out any Greek government. There was little support from northern Europe, which had yet to stop its slow, lazy slide that began in the late 1970s. The only northern Mediterranean power which was doing well was Turkey, still on bad terms with its ostensible NATO ally, Greece. With a bemused fatalism Claire had watched the Greeks form coalition governments and juggle parties; she cared little for conventional politics, and Kontos’s news was only confirmation of what she had long expected.

  “You have been the solitary good spot in this summer. You are a lady, a true scientist, and it has been delightful.”

  Claire never felt quite at ease fielding bald-faced compliments. “Ah, thank you, but—”

  “Our friendship, it is the only element I shall miss if the site is closed this week.”

  “This week?”

  “Ne. Of course. That is what I say to the camp man.”

  “Impossible.”

  “Necessary, however. There are forces in our government who would like to create an incident, with this as a pretext.”

  To Claire’s look of disbelief he nodded slowly, sadly. “It is so.”

  “This is an internationally agreed-upon expedition, we have all the papers, we have every right to—”

  “You are also unpopular with the surrounding villages.”

  “Who says? Why?”

  “You are Americans.”

  “I was in Nauplia just the other day. The shop people were just as friendly as ever.”

  “Oh, they, yes. They depend on your money.”

  “Alexandros! You’re not seriously suggesting that the villagers share the ah, exaggerations of that bunch in Athens? They don’t—”

  “You do not know the souls of these people, Claire. They are enraged at what years of deprivation have—”

  “I don’t believe it.”

  He said quietly, “Your laborers have left, ohi?”

  “And who instigated that?”

  “Local unrest, the workers…”

  “If there were the slightest element of truth to this, your duty would be to protect the site.”

  Kontos brightened. “So it is. I post a guard here. You will return to Athens.”

  “But my work is here!”

  “You can supervise the laboratory people in Athens. George can remain here to complete what is necessary.”

  “I don’t like that arrangement. We’ve got to finish, there is the excavation behind the tomb walls—”

  “I offer this as a friend. Not as negotiator,” Kontos said mildly, folding his hands before him on the table. “To get the Ministry to approve even this, I will have to pull ropes with the correct people.”

  “Pull strings?”

  “Whatever the phrase.”

  Kontos had clout, yes. He had made his international reputation on the expedition which dove for the Elgin marbles. The famous set in the British Museum was actually the second shipment by Lord Elgin; the first had gone down at sea. Kontos and several of his countrymen had mustered money and experts to recover the priceless, striking stoneworks. They were now the highlight of the Athens Museum. Whatever Kontos said was now law in the small world of Greek archeology.

  “Listen, Alexandros—”

  “No, do not talk this way.” He stood and walked around the table, and stopped beside one of Claire’s partially assembled bowls. He glanced only a moment at the shards, though she knew he had done his doctoral work on just such routine work. That was far behind him now. She caught a faint aroma of him, a heavy musk.

  “Look, I’ve found—”

  “So much business, no no,” he said, smiling broadly.

  Claire’s eyes narrowed. If he interrupts me one more time I’ll scream, she promised herself.

  “I do not want our dealings to be so, so formal, Claire. We are special friends, we can work out this.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “Colleagues, of course. But more than colleagues.”

  Claire sat still, not sure she understood him.

  He continued suavely, carefully, “It will cost me influence and time, you know, to do this.”

  “I certainly appreciate anything you can—”

  “I hoped you might come to Athens, where we can grow to know each other better.”

  “I think we already know enough.”

  He began to knead her shoulder. “Claire, these matters, they require time.”

  “What matters?” She looked up sharply. He was speaking from over her shoulder, making it awkward to confront him. Perfect, she thought. Much easier for her to bow her head and shyly go along with him.

  “Between us—”

  “Between us there is nothing more than professional courtesy!” Claire said sharply. She jerked away from his still-kneading hand and stood up quickly, backing away from him.

  “I do not think that,” he said serenely, “and neither do you.”

  “So now you know what I think? ‘Little unsophisticated American, doesn’t know her own mind, needs a sure hand, some quiet instruction in the delicate arts?’” She snorted.
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  But he still stepped forward, using the imposing bulk of his shoulders beneath the crisp uniform, his hands waving slowly to dispel this sarcastic torrent, a coolly condescending smile playing artfully at the edges of his lips.

  She grimaced and said loudly, “Maybe she just needs a little Old World cock?”

  This had the desired effect. He halted, mouth twitching in a spasm of offended irritation. “That is…insulting.”

  “Damn right!”

  “Your understanding is—”

  “I understand perfectly.”

  “You are quite…American.”

  “Do you know what you just tried to do?”

  “I think so. I am not so sure you know.”

  She said sternly, “You’re willing to give us more time if I’ll come to Athens, set up there”—her eyes widened—“I’ll bet you have a little hotel room reserved already, don’t you? Something near the Ministry, out of the way? An easy walk during a long lunch hour? Or suitable for a stopover, on the way home to the wife in the evening?”

  He stiffened.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “You are a child.”

  “Maybe, by your definitions,” she said quickly, feeling the wind go out of her sails. Had she mistaken the situation? No…but already, despite herself, she was replaying her reaction, seeing it as too harsh, too offensive.

  “I offered a compromise, a bargain between scholars. I cannot help it if my own feelings become mixed in.”

  “You’ll have to separate them,” she said coolly.

  He spread his hands in a Mediterranean gesture of acceptance. “I cannot divide myself beneath the knife.”

  “Well, it’s no deal, got it?”

  “You do not—”

  “I’m not going to become your little poopsie just to wring a few more weeks out of this dig.”

  His face flushed. “You cold bitch!”

  “Cold, huh? Ever think it might be your technique?”

  His face congested with rage. She felt suddenly the compressed force of the man, and saw she had gone too far.

  He stepped forward, fists clenched.

  She cringed back for an instant, then impulsively stepped to the assembly table and picked up a pot. It was nearly complete, carefully glued. She held it up precariously in one hand.

  “Come closer and I’ll drop it.”

  “You…” He swore in Greek.

  Kontos was still an archeologist, even though he had spent most of this dig playing politics in Athens. His early professional days, spent laboriously piecing together shards, still meant something to him.

  Or so she hoped.

  A long moment passed. Then something changed in his eyes.

  “Take your hand away from the heritage of my country,” he said stiffly.

  “Heritage?” She restrained a laugh. The man’s moods were incredible.

  “You are here with our consent.”

  “True enough.”

  “And I will not tolerate your…insults.”

  He spat into the dust.

  “Alexandros—”

  He jerked the tent flap aside and left without looking back.

  CHAPTER

  Two

  Just before noon they found something odd.

  Claire was busy, trying to tie up a thousand straggling ends. She did not notice George Schmitt trotting up the dusty path until he called, “Hey! I got the slab out.”

  She looked up, brown eyes wide with disbelief. “Out? You were supposed to check the mortar, period.”

  “I did. It’s only a couple inches deep. So’s the slab.”

  She shook her head and stepped outside the tin-roofed sorting shed. “You were supposed to see if the center slab was different, right? Not pry it away from the wall.”

  “Yeah, but it was easier than we thought.”

  “With that piece missing, the whole damned dome could collapse.”

  He grinned, blond hair glinting in the slanted sun of crisp morning. “I’ve got the hole braced real well. Crowbars, steel and wood. No big deal, anyway—the slab’s only five centimeters thick.”

  Claire grimaced. “Come on,” she said tensely.

  I should’ve known better than to let him do it alone, she thought. It would be a miracle if his brace held, considering the lintel support he had put up several months back. The local workmen had to start over from scratch on that one. If only the damned Greeks weren’t off on this strike, she’d never have let George touch such a tricky job.

  Kontos was deliberately keeping the men away now, she was sure of it. He had returned to Athens in a foul mood, and was probably pulling the strings in the labor unions of the nearby towns.

  But strikes came so often now they had gotten used to working around them. This strike was a protest, saying the archeologists ought to hire more workers, rather than put the present laborers on overtime when it was needed. A curious kind of solidarity; usually people simply asked for more money.

  They went along the worn path around the hillside, scuffing up dust. A lone cypress tree held out against the odds, a freak green richness amid the rough scrub. Claire liked the fresh scent of it, and habit made her glance up toward the distant hills where files of trees cut the horizon. Until the fall rains came the countryside would not truly begin to recover from the searing summer just past. A welcome breeze stirred the dust from her steps. It carried a whisper of waves from the other side of the hill, where the cliff dropped to the Aegean.

  The area seemed deserted now, with most of their expedition gone home. She missed the supportive sense of community, with its loose-knit organization of surveyor, cataloger, field technician, foreman and other jobs. Now the khaki tents were empty, the collected fruits of the summer’s labors awaiting their journey to Athens.

  Their base work camp was only five minutes’ walk from the entrance to the tomb. As they climbed they gained a view of the excavated ancient village which had taken most of the season’s labor. Though the exposed stone walls and collapsed structures had yielded many potsherds and implements, little of it was distinctive. Their understanding of Mycenaean Greece would not be greatly advanced by this hot, conflict-filled summer. Still, the tholos tomb above the village suggested that the region had been significant, perhaps even wealthy, with a ruler worthy of elaborate burial. It might yet reward these last explorations, carried out at the nub end of the expedition. Or so she hoped. She had taken a semester’s sabbatical from Boston University to close up the site and finish her own projects. So far there had been no payoff for her carefully calculated investment of time.

  Claire strode in through the excavated passageway, between massive limestone blocks, a few steps ahead of George despite his advantage in height. She moved with efficient, bunched energy, her smart tan jumper going snick snick as her legs scissored. At twenty-eight, she had been on seven major digs in Greece and Turkey, which had brought a sinewy heft to her thighs.

  The long unroofed corridor rose to each side, knifing into the hill to meet the great rectangular entrance. They went from sunlight to sharp shadow as they passed under the huge lintel, their footfalls echoing back at them in false welcome from the beehive tomb.

  Claire stopped amid a clutter of tools. “That frame is pathetic.” She picked her way forward. “God, what a rat’s nest.”

  “It’ll hold,” George said defiantly. He slapped the timbers. The slab swung, creaking in a double-ply rope cradle. She saw he had done the simplest job possible, not bothering with a side brace. The important part was the framing of the hole left in the wall, though. That seemed okay. He had used standard steel struts, wedged in to carry the weight. She bent to inspect the slab.

  Three concentric circles had been chiseled in the outer face. This was what had intrigued her about it in the first place. There were scratches near the edges—probably insignificant, she judged. She ducked around to see the other side. Gray mortar clung feebly to the edges, crumbling to the touch. The back face was blank, unin
teresting.

  “Too bad,” she said.

  “Yeah.” George brought a hand lamp and crouched beside her. “Point is, look inside.”

  She turned awkwardly in the cramped space against the wall and peered into the large hole. An amber-colored cone gleamed dully, pointed straight out at her. It was mounted somehow on black rock.

  She sucked in her breath. “What…?”

  “A beauty, huh? Here we thought the slab might be carved on both faces, but who’d think they’d bury something behind it?”

  “Mycenaean burials didn’t use the walls for—” she started, and then shut her mouth. So much for the conventional wisdom.

  “Look how symmetrical it is,” George said lovingly. “Perfect. Only, a perfect what?”

  “I never saw anything similar.”

  “Ornamental, that’s for sure.”

  “No hole in it that I can see, so you couldn’t wear it on a necklace.”

  “Check. Too long, anyway—must be ten centimeters at least. Wonder how it’s stuck on?”

  “Looks like it’s imbedded.” He leaned forward, reached between the steel struts and touched the rock beyond. “Yeah, see? It’s been tapered at the base, to fit into the dark limestone.”

  “A fairly rare material. Funny, concealing it.”

  “You’d think they’d show it off. I’m sure glad I didn’t hit that cone when I jammed the steel in there.”

  Claire thought, I suppose that’s his way of saying he realizes how lucky he was. All alone, struggling with weights he couldn’t handle, sticking supports in blind. She shook her head.

  George caught her. He said roughly, “Shine the spot over here.”

  He squeezed himself into the narrow space between the hanging slab and the hole it had left. The added yellow-tinged light showed that the black rock did not fill the opening. It stopped five centimeters short on one side, and left a slightly larger gap on the other. There was no gap at top or bottom.

  Claire said, “Looks like these top and bottom blocks are as thin as the first one.”

  “Look at the side ones, though. Half a meter thick, easy.”

  “To carry the weight down around this thin part,” Claire said. She rubbed the black surface. It was bumpy, perhaps simply roughed out by a stonemason with the same quick efficiency devoted to paving stones. “Large chisel marks,” she said to herself.