men.’’
‘‘Exactly what do you want?’’
‘‘Haven’t I said? Haven’t you read my letter?’’
Diane rummaged through the letters until she came to one from Dr. Holloway.
‘‘Your letter just arrived on my desk. I haven’t even had a chance to open it.’’
‘‘Yes. Well, you would see, Dr. Fallon, if you had read my letter, I’m a paleoparasitologist. I’m doing postgraduate research here. A groundbreaking pilot study analyzing mummy tissue for drugs and diseases. It’s a prelude to a proposal to the mummy tissue bank.’’
‘‘The mummy tissue bank?’’
‘‘Yes. Most researchers are looking into the courses of diseases in ancient mummies. But I’m looking spe cifically at Egyptian mummies, since they came from a culture which had a more sophisticated practice of medicine. I’m hoping I can discover what they used to treat ailments we now know were caused by para sites, such as schistosomiasis, and evaluate the efficacy of their treatments.’’
‘‘Have you thought about looking at the practices among the native peoples of South America? Though not technologically advanced, they have a tradition handed down from ancient times and have made pretty sophisticated use of the native plant life for medicinal purposes.’’
Diane wasn’t sure why she said that. She didn’t usu ally question researchers on their methodology, cer tainly not on something that wasn’t her field. She supposed it was some gut reaction to defend the skills of the South American Indians, with whom she was very familiar.
‘‘Yes, well, I don’t really want to argue the point. My research design requires Egyptian samples, so you can see why I’m interested in your mummy.’’
‘‘Yes. You and many others. We just acquired the mummy. How did you find out about him?’’
‘‘A few months ago, a friend told me about him. I couldn’t get access, but I kept in touch with its disposi tion. I assure you, my research isn’t frivolous.’’
‘‘No. I’m sure it’s not. I’m just surprised at the inter est in him so soon. I’ll read your proposal.’’
Andie led in Mike Seger who was carrying a large three-paneled poster board. They began setting it up on the desk in Diane’s office. Andie stepped back to look at it.
‘‘Look, Dr. Fallon,’’ Holloway continued, ‘‘I sent you my list of publications. You don’t propose to eval uate my research. . . . You are a small museum. . . .’’ ‘‘I assure you, size doesn’t matter.’’
This assertion caught the attention of both Andie and Mike. They looked at each other, then at Diane, eyebrows raised, amusement written on their faces. Diane rolled her eyes.
‘‘I didn’t mean to suggest,’’ said Dr. Holloway. ‘‘Of course, I recognize your competence, but...’’
‘‘Dr. Holloway, if you know about the mummy, then you know he is without provenance. We don’t even know if he is actually an ancient mummy or of more modern origin.’’
‘‘I understand that, but there are tests...’’
‘‘Yes, and we are in the process of running them. Right now, I’m not prepared to address your request one way or the other.’’
‘‘You aren’t saying no, then. That’s good. We’ll keep the lines open, then.’’
‘‘Kendel said we’d be getting requests from re searchers,’’ said Andie when Diane had hung up the phone.
‘‘Apparently, they’re calling my cell phone and my home.’’ The calls had nagged Diane, but she felt better knowing they were probably from researchers. ‘‘Just a moment,’’ she told Andie and Mike.
Diane decided to return the calls while she was think ing about it and refer them to Kendel and Jonas. She di aled the Colorado number and got a recorded message:
‘‘You are returning a call to a prepaid calling service system, and the party cannot be reached at this number.’’
The Omaha number gave her the same message.
‘‘That’s odd.’’
‘‘What?’’ asked Andie.
‘‘These calls . . .’’ Diane explained the calls and the recorded message she just reached.
‘‘Calling card,’’ said Mike. ‘‘It’s a standard birthday and Christmas gift my parents give me, hoping I’ll call more often.’’
Andie nodded. ‘‘One of a handful of cities comes up on the caller ID every time you use it.’’
‘‘Oh.’’
She’d just have to wait until they called her again. She rose and walked from behind her desk.
‘‘What do you have here?’’ she asked Mike.
‘‘An illustration of the earth science exhibit,’’ said Mike. ‘‘The entrance starts here.’’ He pointed to the upper- left part of the poster. ‘‘The crust is divided into the horizons. We’re working on mechanical devices— kind of like Disney World stuff—that look like insect and parasitic life found in the soil. It will be large— the visitors will seem like they’ve shrunk.’’
‘‘I like that,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Next we have the mantel, the convection currents, then the core. It’s all pretty straightforward. The ex hibit
