Shay stared at the pixie, frowning. Project Ragnarok. Project Nephilim. The government knew, and at least some of the Oricerans knew.
Maybe Dr. Weber had stumbled onto a far more important truth than anyone realized.
“Thanks, Madge. That’s interesting, and maybe even a little helpful.”
The pixie winked. “Keep your head on a swivel out there, honey. This world has a lot more to teach you, some of it deadly. I’ll tell Tubal-Cain you stopped by when he wakes up.”
Chapter Nineteen
Shay pulled the SUV off the dirt road. A short wooden fence surrounded the Anzick site. The simple structure was too low to do a good job of stopping people, so she presumed it was there to stop wandering animals. The actual dig site was a series of deep rectangular pits. A few no-trespassing signs were up, even though there hadn’t been much active digging in years.
Unless Dr. Weber gets his way.
“Are we going to have to beat up some deputies?” Lily asked, pointing to one of the signs.
Shay shook her head. “Officially, I’m here as part of a preliminary survey for a new excavation with my department head’s blessing and everything.” She frowned. “That is gonna get annoying in the future.”
“Why?”
“Because unlike tomb raiding, actual archaeology is very slow and methodical, and now Dr. Weber’s expecting me to actually commit to an excavation.” Shay shrugged. “I’ll just have to make something up. As it is, I’m gonna have to lie about this. Besides, I don’t have weeks to take off to sit in Montana. I’ll be a real archaeologist in the future after I retire from tomb raiding.”
Lily peered at the fences and the pits. “This isn’t what I was expecting, to be honest.”
Shay shrugged. “It’s not some grand tomb. It’s just where they found some bones and artifacts under what was likely a collapsed rock shelter. It’s about as impressive as some of the other jobs I’ve taken you on.”
“Those weren’t just literally holes in the ground. I’m surprised anyone still cares about this place. Wouldn’t they have found everything important already?”
Shay chuckled and opened the door and stepped out. “In the last few decades, they’ve come back with newer technology, and they discovered more bones and artifacts.” She pointed to a pit in the corner. “That’s the one place they found evidence of a more extensive structure a few years back. They didn’t bother to follow up because of funding, but that’s unfortunate because that’s where things get interesting.”
Lily exited the vehicle, and both tomb raiders went to the back. Shay opened the hatch to pull out a drone.
“What do you mean by interesting?” the teen asked.
“Subsequent excavation uncovered several out-of-place artifacts. They found several crystals that aren’t indigenous to the area and have evidence of being artificially shaped by technologies far beyond not only the one in this area but any human culture at the time.” Shay flipped a few switches on the drone and set it a few yards from the vehicle. “Make sure nobody ambushes us, Peyton.”
“Will do,” he responded in her earpiece. His voice was muffled, and she could hear chewing a second later.
Guess that explains why he’s been so quiet. Kind of a blessing.
The drone hummed and whirred into the sky until it was hundreds of feet up.
Lily patted her tactical harness. Shay smiled. The girl was already internalizing good tactical awareness both pre- and post-battle. If her precognition couldn’t save her, that very well might.
“So what about the crystals?” the girl asked. “They are all weird and artificial. They probably took them and did a bunch of tests, right?”
Shay grabbed a shovel from the back and tossed it to Lily, and picked up her own. “From what Dr. Weber said, all the crystals were stolen not that long after the last excavation. The archaeology community still doesn’t want to admit this place might have anything to do with magic, and more than a few people have tried to argue the crystals never existed. That it was all a fraud by pro-Oriceran scholars.” She headed toward the fence, Lily trailing after her.
“But you think the crystals were magical?”
Shay nodded. “Yeah.” She frowned. “The only weird thing is that they’ve done preliminary magical surveys in the area. They’ve found traces of what might be magical energy, but not what they’d expect. I don’t know all the details of why, but from what I’ve read, it’s basically the wrong ‘flavor.’”
If that pixie’s right, then I think I know why. That might also be why no one serious has looked into this place.
Lily shrugged. “Maybe it’s just like the magical version of finding some rusty old screw from centuries ago. Might not be a big deal. Some local rednecks probably stole the crystals to sell for dust.”
Shay chuckled. “Could be. Again, I don’t know the details, but those crystals probably had something to do with the portal if there was one here.” She walked toward the fence. “We have the exact coordinates from Dr. Weber’s old paper, so we’re gonna do a little quick digging.” She jumped to the top of the fence and then over.
Lily vaulted the fence using her free hand. “I don’t get why no one else has done this. I mean, I know you said they lost funding, but this place has been here a long time, and no one has finished digging it up just because of one batch of stolen crystals?”
“Lots of controversy over the site for a lot of reasons. Some of it because it involved Native Americans, some of it because this is private land that’s changed hands. After Weber’s theories started spreading, a lot of reputable archaeologists didn’t want to do more work, worrying about being associated with fringe pseudoarcheology. Like I said, even today, it’s still got a little taint because of it. You have to understand, kid, that a lot of these archaeologists spent their entire careers saying people
