who knew the entire system needed revamping.'
The senator opened the twin doors and shook Jack's hand again.
'That wicked old woman will have someone show you to your quarters, and then you'll be taken on a small tour of our vault area. Niles and I have a meeting with Her Majesty's archivist in England and the British prime minister in ten minutes, and the president will be listening in. So I'll leave you in the Wicked Witch of the West's hands because, as I say, we have an argument ahead of us. It seems the Brits want a body returned to the soil of the Empire.'
Collins released the senator's hand as he turned away to go back into his office. As the doors were closing behind him, he heard the old man say, 'This body belongs to the world, not just the British, damn it!'
Collins was joined by Alice Hamilton, who placed her aged arm through his own and started walking him toward the elevator. Collins figured Alice was one of those people who actually ran things at the Group, the one you went to when you wanted to cut through the crap and get something done. He decided that he would want her ear in the coming weeks and months.
As he entered the elevator, Alice whispered as she kept the doors from closing, 'Garrison is really up in arms because he and Niles don't want to give up one of our finds, but the burial site was found on an American naval base in Scotland, so they wanted to keep it a while longer. But as always, they will return it when it's been examined. The senator wants to keep it for good, but Dr. Compton is younger and calmer and knows the British deserve it, so the senator will defer to Niles.' She smiled and looked at Jack. 'It was one of the senator's pet projects here at Group, proving the existence of a fourth-century warlord named Artorius, in the Latin language, or better known as Arthur, in the English.'
As Alice let the elevator doors slowly close, she had to smile, because the last thing she saw was Major Collins's face as he tried to stop the doors from closing. 'You mean they found the body of King Arth--' But the doors closed, cutting off his amazed expression and question.
They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
--EDGAR ALLAN POE
'ELEONORA,'I84I
FOUR
Specialist Fifth Class Sarah McIntire closed her book and notepad at the end of class. Today's lecture had been on ancient burial pitfalls, traps made to prevent looting of various burial sites throughout the world that Event Group archaeologists had come across during the many excavations in places like the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt, and in the Peruvian Inca ruins excavated in 2004. Sarah taught geology and used the opportunity given her by the ancients to spice up an otherwise boring day of geological subject matter. She had been joined by a professor visiting her class thanks to a virtual video link from the University of Tennessee. He'd delivered a nice lecture on the use of hot springs and other natural elements as traps by ancient architects in their planning of tombs.
'Boy, was that dead or what?'
Sarah looked around to see her roommate, Signalman First Class Lisa Willing, USN, smiling and holding her books against her ample chest. The blue Group jumpsuit fit her a little too well, which helped in giving her part of her nickname, behind her back of course, of Willing Lisa. Sarah knew Lisa had to have heard it before, but her friend always said it was just better to ignore people. Sarah knew Lisa to be smart as a whip, and she was the best in her field of electronics and communications as well. And, as her roommate, Sarah knew her not to be
'Oh, thanks, so I'm boring?'
'Nah, just kidding, kiddo,' Lisa said, smiling and nudging her friend with her shoulder.
'Well, just another week and I'll finish my graduate work and I'll have my master's from the Colorado School of Mines. That still won't guarantee a field assignment.' Sarah looked at Lisa. 'You've been there, haven't you?'
'Egypt? Yeah, last year we had that busted field operation when that French asshole blew the whistle on Dr. Fryman from NYU. We were this close'--Lisa held up her index finger and thumb about an inch apart--'to getting a good lead on some relics that may have escaped the destruction of the great library of Alexandria.'
Sarah looked at her friend with envy. She longed for the day to participate in something other than simulations and attending classes. She would walk out of here with a master's degree in geology and an officer's commission, a second lieutenant's gold bar, but she wanted what everyone here at the Group wanted, and that was fieldwork. But the opportunity hadn't arisen in the two years she had been here. She was not like a lot of the scientists here at the Group. She was a soldier first and that was what was so damn frustrating for her. She had the training she needed to survive, she should be eligible for more than just geology and tunnel teams, and she should be placed on any roster where a soldier was required. She knew it had been just a fluke that her geology team hadn't had any fieldwork, but that didn't make it any less frustrating.
'I would have loved to have been there,' Sarah said as they passed others on their way to class and the mess hall.
'You'll get your shot,' the blond woman said. 'Hey, you wanna grab a late lunch? I'm starving.' Lisa had become quite adept at steering her roommate away from a very sore subject.
Sarah hunched her shoulders in a 'whatever' gesture and started for the mess hall.
As they stepped into the main cafeteria, Sarah, concentrating on her thoughts, didn't see the large man with gold oak leaf bars on his collar. Luckily, he saw the collision coming before it happened. Moving quickly, he raised his tray full of roast beef and mashed potatoes at the last second above her small frame. Sarah raised her arms over her head, hoping if food fell, most of it would fall on her textbook and not her. As she was doing this, she inadvertently backed into another, only slightly smaller man. As she hit his tray, the man deftly backed up two paces and righted the plates before he lost his sandwich and green-tinted lime Jell-O.
'Boy, you're just a little pinball, aren't you?' asked the first, taller officer.
Sarah turned to the second man, who held his tray in one hand and was readjusting its contents.
'I'm so sorry,' she said, embarrassed.
'You'll have to excuse my roommate, sir, she's daydreaming of caves and tunnels and all other kinds of nasty stuff,' Lisa chimed in, letting her eyes linger a little too long at the taller of the two officers.
'Think nothing of it, ladies, just a minor traffic pileup, no harm done,' said the man with the dark brown hair and wearing an army major's rank on his new coveralls.
Sarah backed away with her book held to her chest. Her eyes locked on the man's blue ones. His stare didn't waver; his smile was dazzling and his gaze almost hypnotic. She finally broke what was to her an awkward moment by turning and walking away quickly enough that Lisa had to run to catch up.
'Hey, slow down,' Lisa called at Sarah's retreating form, looking back at the taller of the two men, the one with a navy lieutenant commander rank on his collar. He was returning her look, smiling as his companion commented on something, and then he had to finally turn away.
'Damn, that's the new head of security,' Sarah said as she took a tray from the stack and placed it on the serving line.
'With you becoming an officer yourself soon, there could be something there,' Lisa chided, nodding her head in the direction of the almost accident, but all they saw were people staring at them, waiting for the line to start moving again.
Sarah turned and looked at her friend. 'Is it the entire navy that has dirty minds and reads nonexistent things
