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

people are saying about this place?"

"Of course I know."

"What you've supposedly found out here makes this project look like a science fiction adventure."

Hoshi went over to one of the desks, unlocked a drawer and took out a small white cardboard box.
"Here," she said, and gave it to Althea.
Althea opened it. The box was filled with tissue paper. She picked at it until she saw what was inside.
She felt her mouth twitch into a smirk. She looked up at Hoshi, not bothering to hide her disbelief. "A
bone?"

Hoshi nodded with incredible gravity.

"This is a human bone. It's part of a hand." Althea felt her jealousy and any spark of sympathy for Hoshi
vanish. She let out a bark of a laugh. "Did you bring it in your luggage?"

"I've had it analyzed by three different labs. You can look at the reports. They all confirm it's human,
about four thousand years old."

Althea poked at the finger bone. She'd seen plenty of them, catalogued dozens. It certainly wasn't
anything else. It was a pitted little finger bone, smudged here and there with floury reddish dust. "Dug it
up with your own fair hands, did you? Right here on good old Mars?"

"Actually, Jeff found it."

"But not the rest of the skeleton. I suppose a lot can happen to the only human on Mars in four thousand
years."

"Geologically, yes."

She looked so serious. She must have practiced in a mirror for hours. Althea tried to decide if this
moment was worth thirty weeks in a box. "I suppose you had witnesses when you dug it up?"

"It's on video. We tape everything. Like you taught me."

Althea settled herself on the edge of the desk. "If you're so sure about this, you don't need me. You
should've announced it. You'd be famous by now."

Hoshi came over to the desk. "I know you think this is a fake. I would never have asked you to travel
forty-six million miles for a fake." She looked away, like she had on the video. "I need your support on
this, Althea."

"My support?" The urge to have a good sarcastic laugh faded into a strange flutter in Althea's chest. "My
support?"

"Obviously I can't announce this to the press or the academic journals on my own. They'd come to you,
and you'd give them your opinion of me."

"Please," said Althea. "If Elliot was alive, even he'd have a hard time swallowing this."