"Severna Park - The Three Unknowns" - читать интересную книгу автора (Park Severna)

"Be careful with the mortar in the wall," she said, muffled by her own rebreather. "I want to see if it's the
same in the entire structure."

Jeff's voice answered. "Some of it might have been built at different times." He tapped the wall in front of
himтАФa jumble of stone pasted together with orange mortar, shockingly low-tech. "See how crumbly this
is? It's more weathered than the other two."

Althea cringed as a rivulet of orange mortar trickled down to mingle with the rest of the Martian dirt, its
virgin, testable elements lost forever. She pushed her fingers into her hair. They should have sealed
everything with inert polymers. Hadn't they taken samples? She checked the date. This was almost a
year ago.

"Hey," said Jeff. "Does this look organic to you?"

Now Hoshi leaned into the camera's view as it focused on the red ground, unevenly scored by the sharp
point of the dental pick, powdered by the toothbrush bristles. Something showed just under the surface.
It looked like a pinkish-white twig.

Jeff put the toothbrush to one side and picked up a one-inch-wide camel-hair paintbrush. He whisked at
the thing until half of it was exposed. His breathing was deafening, like a diver underwater.

"Uh тАж," he said.

Hoshi took a sharp breath. Her gloved fingers bumped the camera. "This thing running?" Her voice was
suddenly high and nervous.

"Yeah, yeah."

Althea frowned, but it didn't sound rehearsed. He sounded genuinely surprised. She sounded genuinely
тАж what? Scared? Hoshi leaned closer to the hole and lay down so she could reach in over the edge. She
produced her own brush and a small flashlight. The two of them brushed furiously, silently. Althea
adjusted the sound and realized they were both holding their breath. The bone came free of the red dirt
and lay there in the flashlight beam.

"Dammit. Dammit!" whispered Hoshi.

"Jeezus," said Jeff. "That's a bone."

Hoshi panted into her microphone. "Get a bag. Get a marker."

Jeff's camera lurched up and away as he bolted across the gridded site. Anything else that Hoshi had to
say was lost to the Martian winds.

Althea shut off her laptop and stared out the window. There were only two things to consider.

One: It was a planted fake. Hoshi'd had access to anthropological museum collections throughout her
doctoral studies. If a finger bone was missing from a storage drawer, who was going to notice right
away? No one checked anything but the rarest mummies on a regular basis, and some museumsтАФthe
one in Serbia where Althea had been for six months came to mindтАФhad laughable security.