The Rings of Poseidon (19 page)

Gill snuggled even closer to him and he
slipped his hand under her sweater to stroke her breast through the
cotton of her T-shirt as he kissed her again.

Gill and Steve wandered into the cabin later,
interrupting Alicia, who had almost finished anyway. Steve was
putting on the kettle when the door opened and Frank came in,
looking triumphant.

"You look like the cat that got the cream,"
observed Gill.

"I kind of feel that way too," he answered
"The real trouble was in changing from their calendar to ours, so
as to come up with a date we can recognise."

"Whose calendar?" Alicia wanted to know as
she packed her papers away and turned off the computer. "Oh yes,
the Mayans. But what date?"

"The date when all cycles zeroed and,
according to your story, the new age was supposed to begin, you
were sacrificed and the rock crashed from the sky."

"The last bit, about the rock, was in Manjy's
story not mine," said Alicia, "but I follow what you're getting at.
So what was the date?"

"In our calendar, 5th June 8498 BC."

"That's precise," said Gill.

"The Mayans were very precise people with an
obsession for detail - at least where dates were concerned. My
calculator's still red hot with turning their date into one we can
recognise."

"Still, I'm impressed."

"I don't remember exactly, but that sounds
like the date Otto Muck gives for the destruction of Atlantis,"
said Steve, and everybody looked at him. "As I said, I'm not
certain about the date, but he mentions a time. 13.00 hours."

Frank held up a piece of paper on which he
had written '5th June 8498 BC at 13.00 hours."

At first nobody spoke, then Gill said, "I'm
even more impressed."

"You know," mused Alicia, "that's just about
the date Plato gives for the destruction of Atlantis too, though
he's much more vague, of course." She stood up. "Oh well, time for
bed I think. I want things to go right when the professor
comes."

"OK, I'll just tidy up before I put the
generator to bed," said Steve, and started to clear the mugs away.
Gill came over to him.

"I'll just tidy up before you put me to bed,"
she whispered, "the invitation still stands."

"Don't worry, I'm putting the generator to
bed, not sleeping with it," he said. "I'll be with you less than
two minutes after the electric lights go out."

Quite what he expected when he went to Gill's
room Steve wasn't sure. She might have tucked herself up or changed
into something more seductive, taken a sleeping pill out of habit
or even changed her mind, but he was just a little surprised at
what he did find.

Gill was sitting on her bunk. She had taken a
leather thong off the carved wooden pendant he had occasionally
seen her wearing and was threading the amulet onto it.

"The light from the gas lamp isn't very
good," she said, "but I'll be finished in a minute."

"What on earth are you doing? No. I can see
what you're doing. What I really meant to ask is 'why'?"

"I'm not sure," replied Gill, tying the cord
and putting it over her head, "but I'm absolutely convinced I'm
going to need to wear it in the next few days. I suppose you think
I'm being silly."

"Don't be so defensive. In the first place
you may be a bit psychic - that feeling could turn out to be
something important and, even it doesn't, if it makes you feel
easier to have that thing ready to wear, well okay. Mind you, I
shouldn't let Alicia see you with it."

"That is extremely good advice, but not
really needed. I thought she might have remembered and realised
that both the amulet and the computer record had gone. She just
forgot about it or something, I looked at her papers."

Gill took off the amulet, stood up and put it
away in the locker she referred as a wardrobe.

"I don't know whether 'amulet' is the right
word." said Steve. "I thought an amulet was a general good luck
charm. This may have been specially made in connection with the
ring, in which case it ought to be ... called a ... talisman
..."

With Gill's arms around his neck Steve found
it hard to concentrate on other things. She had let down her hair
down and it smelled faintly of flowers, so he gave up on the amulet
or talisman or whatever it was and concentrated on Gill.

She was more striking in her looks, with
violet-blue eyes, long lashes and mouth a shade wide, than actually
beautiful, but the combination of the low lamplight, his love and
her nakedness made her seem very lovely to him. She clung to him
and responded to pleasure she once thought she had lost for
ever.

When she later fell asleep in Steve's arms it
was the first time in two years she hadn't needed a sleeping
pill.

Chapter 16

The next morning was sunny and promised to be
warm, even hot, later. The camp woke early to get about its
business, with Alicia anxious to see things started and to create a
good impression on her professor when he arrived. If she knew that
Gill had spent the night with Steve, she didn't say anything, but
Gill was more content with life than she'd felt for a long time and
was raring to go. The local men turned up early, anxious to make up
for time lost through the rain. It was a happy and cheerful crowd
that crossed the field to the dig.

Steve checked over the vehicles and washed
away all traces of the rain of the previous twenty-four hours. Then
he filled the water tanks and checked the calor gas bottles before
he drove down to meet the ferry.

As there wasn't much to pick up at the ferry,
Steve had taken the car rather than the Landrover. He was waiting
on the hard, leaning against the bonnet in his shirt sleeves
sunning himself, when the boat came alongside and tied up with the
usual practised ease. Professor Harrington landed first because he
left his bags to the crew and about a dozen passengers came up the
steps after him.

There were four climbers with their gear,
probably come to tackle the 'Old Man of Hoy', and a couple of other
tourists who had, to judge from their equipment, come for the
fishing. The rest were a sprinkling of local people who had been
visiting or shopping. There wasn't a lot for the camp that day
besides the professor's bags, and they didn't amount to much of a
load.

"Good morning Benderman. Just put my bags in
the boot will you," he said to Steve, addressing him like a
chauffeur or a taxi driver, as he held the car door open.

Steve was cheerful and friendly as he
recovered the professor's bags from the top of the steps and put
them in the car boot with a couple of boxes the ferry had brought.
True enough the old man's brusqueness irritated him a little, but
he didn't have to put up with the old coot for long, so it didn't
seem to matter as he slammed the boot. He even hummed a tune to
himself as he walked round to the driver's side and climbed in.

"Did you have a good journey, professor?" he
asked as he started up.

"I flew. Changed at Aberdeen. There was
rather a lot of rain, otherwise reasonable. How long will it take
us to reach the dig?"

"Oh, about fifteen minutes or so. I've never
actually timed it but it doesn't take long."

"Have you had much of a problem with the
weather?" asked the academic.

There was something condescending about the
older man's manner which, coupled with his brusqueness, set Steve's
teeth on edge and made him dislike the man, though not with any
exact reason.

"We lost most of yesterday to the rain you
mentioned," Steve told him, "and the ground was wet, but it dried
out overnight and it never even slowed down the Landrover."

"Good, good," said the professor and lapsed
into silence. Steve drove on, feeling that he ought to say
something but, not being very strong on small talk, he couldn't
think of much to say.

"Quite a view from the crest of this hill,"
he remarked. "I know the hill itself isn't much but the island
slopes away this side."

"I imagine that you'd get a better view from
the higher ground to the west."

"Possibly, but the higher land is lonely and
wild." He searched for something else to say. "According to the map
there's a stone circle near the Rackwick road."

I know. I went when I was here in the
spring."

Steve sighed with relief as they reached the
dig. "Here we are," he said unnecessarily, and turned into the
field.

Professor Harrington was more than impressed
with the progress of the dig. He glanced over the camp and then
left Steve to see to lunch while he walked over the field to the
excavations. He took an overall look at the site and talked to the
local men who were finishing off work on the first house. He spoke
with with the volunteers and seemed to be trying to get an
impartial overall view of the project, before turning to any
details.

Gill, Manjy and the girls from Kirkwall were
now well down into the second house. Alan, with two more
volunteers, was numbering and stacking the roof stones from the
third house, while Frank and the remaining helper had dug along the
route of the passage way to the fourth house, uncovering the
roof.

The professor could see at once that the site
was substantial but thought that Alicia's interpretation - a more
cautious version of Steve's story, though she didn't mention her
less than orthodox sources - was more fanciful than the evidence
warranted. All the same, he didn't contradict her.

Over a sandwich lunch Alicia asked Professor
Harrington, "Are you planning to sleep here in the camp?"

"I don't think I will be staying long," he
said, "but I will stay at the hotel in Linksness. I will take the
car overnight for transportation."

You can use my room if you like," said Steve,
"because I can always put some bedding in the Landrover."

Gill, who was standing behind the professor
at the time, caught Steve's eye and grinned.

"Most kind." said the academic. "but I won't
inconvenience you. I'll only be staying one night or possibly two
at the most."

"Up to you," said Steve, "Excuse me a moment,
I have to change a Calor gas bottle." and he left the cabin.

After the others had gone back with Frank
temporarily in charge, Alicia started to go through the paperwork
and the finds

"As I told you," said Alicia, "we uncovered
the remains of two people. More or less complete skeletons. Alan
and company found the skeleton of a young female among the ruins of
house number one. Gill's team found the other, a skeleton of a
small adult male uncovered just outside the entrance to the village
while they were looking for the way in. I've got some photographs
here."

Alicia opened a wallet of prints and selected
several that related to the find. Her professor studied one or two
and then began to unfold Frank's plan of the excavations. Alicia
leaned over towards the map.

"Now the skeleton we found here," and she
indicated the spot, "was wearing a ring. Copper as far as we could
tell, but coated with something to prevent it losing its newness we
think. At least it still shone like new."

The academic's eyes glittered and Steve
thought there was a noticeable coldness in his voice as he snapped
"Show me."

Perhaps it was only an archaeologist's
enthusiasm, because Alicia didn't seem to detect anything unusual
as she opened the cabinet and took out the ring.

Professor Harrington examined the ring
carefully for a minute before saying, "What a remarkable state of
preservation it's in. This ring is a thing of beauty and
power."

He was almost oblivious of the two other
people in the room as he gazed at the ring with a growing glitter
in his eyes.

"This ought to go back to the university for
security," he said at length. "I don't know how much intrinsic
value it has, but the value that comes from age is
considerable."

He held up the ring in what Steve thought was
near triumph and stood up. "You wouldn't want to lose it."

Steve half turned and saw Alicia, still
seated, glance up at the professor who was holding the ring up to
the light to examine it further. Then, to Steve's surprise, she
fainted!

Professor Harrington looked both surprised,
concerned and rather helpless. "Oh dear," he said. "Whatever caused
that?"

Steve knelt to take a closer look. "I don't
know," he said, "but perhaps you'd better fetch Gill ... Miss
Meadows."

"Yes. Yes indeed," said the Professor and
exited hastily, his demeanour suggesting either relief to be doing
something or relief just to be passing responsibility to someone
else.

"Probably the former," thought Steve as
Alicia stirred.

Steve had helped her first into a sitting
position on the floor and then onto a chair. There was a small lump
on the side of her head where she had struck something, possibly a
corner of the desk, but there didn't appear to be anything else
amiss. At this point a worried Gill rushed into the cabin followed
a few moments later by the Professor and Frank.

Gill insisted on taking Alicia's pulse and
fetching a thermometer to take her temperature, while Steve made
some tea and gave her a mug of it, strong and sweet. Alicia seemed
to recover rapidly and started to make light of what the others
found worrying.

"I'm all right," she insisted when the
Professor suggested they call the doctor. "I've been in perfect
health up to now and it's just down to worrying about everything
going all right for my doctorate."

Professor Harrington was doubtful. "You need
have no worries with regard to your project. Everything is going
splendidly with the dig. However, I wish you'd see a doctor to make
sure all is equally well with your health."