Into the Badlands

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“Did you notice his eyes?”

“Mmm. So blue—so kind and amused.”

“He’s got all that muscle and intensity of purpose and he just gleams with intelligence. I never could resist a brainy guy with a tan.”

Marie raised her voice. “I hear Dr. Blake pulled you out of a sinkhole, Susannah. That must have made your day! Those strong arms wrapped around you. That broad, muscled chest—”

And that broad, muscled ego. “I’m afraid it was wasted on me. All I noticed was light and fresh air.”

“Too bad.” With pitying expressions barely hidden, the women pulled on their gear—gloves, masks, earplugs and goggles. Carol bent over a large chunk of rock. A quiet roar filled the air as she turned on a power drill.

“Susannah!” Charlie made his way through the rows of worktables toward her. They moved away from the noise. “You don’t look much the worse for wear. Adventure must agree with you.”

She gestured at the storage shelves. “I’m looking for my stuff.”

He indicated one of the tables. “We’ve just unpacked the most recent specimens. Cretaceous flotsam and jetsam, most likely.”

“I thought we crated some great specimens.”

“At this point you’ve had a better look at them than I have,” he admitted. “We’ll see, once we get the plaster off and the rest of the rock chipped away.”

“Is my skull ready yet?”

“Carol’s been working on it. It should be ready sometime next week, I think. Unless Dr. Blake has lost it.”

Susannah smiled at Charlie’s aggrieved tone. “How would he have done that?”

“You can smile, but I’m serious. I found him in the storage room early this morning. He claimed to be doing an inventory. He left quite a mess.”

“That’s odd.” Whatever she thought of him, she had trouble believing Alex would be careless with specimens. On the other hand, it hadn’t bothered him at all to drive through the gully, probably crunching fossils as he went. Only half-joking, she asked, “My skull’s still there, isn’t it?”

“It’s there.” Charlie gave a sheepish shrug. “I’m exaggerating.”

“Is it holding together all right?”

“So far, so good. It’s fragile in places. You’re lucky it got safely past your herd of dinosaur fanatics. How can you stand having all those kids milling around?”

“They slow down the work a bit, but they’re lots of fun. They think we’re an exciting bunch, you know.”

“Naive little things.”

“I don’t mean to rush you with the skull. It would be awful if it broke—I’m beginning to think we might find a complete skeleton. That doesn’t happen all that often.”

Charlie smiled reassuringly. “We’ll be extra careful.”

THAT EVENING, Charlie drove Susannah home. “You going to do this to yourself again tomorrow?”

“I don’t think I can.” She was throbbing from head to foot. “I’ll probably have to take some time off, like it or not. I hate to look weak in front of Blake, though.”

“To tell you the truth, Sue, you don’t come across as all that strong, wobbling around covered with bandages, looking like you’re going to cry.”