"James Rollins - Subterranean" - читать интересную книгу автора (Romeyn Henry)

of coffee hadn't kicked in yet, and the stench of leaking ozone from the motor's batteries was making her
queasy.

"I wish you were here with us from the start. I'm afraid there's nothing new left to explore. We've already
searched, cataloged, diagrammed, and explored every square inch. It was all in the papers I sent you last
night."

She rubbed at her red eyes. It had taken her until four in the morning to read the reams of data. Two
hours of sleep did not make for a pleasant morning. "I wish someone had faxed me those earlier. I would
have liked to have gone through them more thoroughly before viewing the site."

"Sorry, but all this is stamped confidential. We were ordered to restrict access until you arrived."

She watched the road ahead as the Mule crawled through the shadows. "More goddamn secrecy," she
grumbled.

"I'll show you the main areas when we arrive. A guided tour, if you will."

Hell with that, she thought. "Listen, Dr. Symski, I'm sure your team was very precise, but I'd prefer to
do a little exploring on my own. Get a feel for the place. The study of a site involves more than just
numbering and cataloging."

"What do you mean?"

She drew a long breath. How to put this into words? The more you worked on a dig, the more each site
developed its own characterтАФor soul. For instance, the Gila dwellings "felt" different than the Chaco
Canyon site. She found this perspective added a unique level of insight into the people and customs.

"Never mind," she said. "It's just what I do."

He shrugged. "I'll leave you on your own, then. I wanted to recheck some measurements anyhow."

She nodded. Good. He was starting to grate on her nerves.

Settling back into her seat, she allowed the road to lull her. Just as her eyes half closed, Dr. Symski
stopped the Mule with a hard brake. "Here we are," he said.

She looked out. Nothing but darkness beyond the stretch of headlights. "Where?"
 "Got to kick up the generator first." He opened his door, and the vehicle's interior lights flashed on. Ben
awakened with a startled grunt.

"Are we there yet?" he asked huskily, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"Yes," she said, trying to drip as much disdain into her voice as possible. "You know, you could have
caught up on your sleep back at camp."

"And miss this? No way."

She watched the young doctor, flashlight in hand, cross to the far wall where the generator sat. He bent
over and began fiddling with the unit. Frowning, Ashley climbed from the truck, hoping the ham-fisted