Page 34 of Power's Fall

Tomorrow, they were off to do Montana’s academic activity, visiting a place called Buran-Kaya III, whose significance she didn’t fully understand even after doing some research and reading up on the professor Montana was meeting with. After that, they were back to itinerary items she’d planned with an afternoon tour of the Massandra Winery.

Dahlia slid off the counter, and once she was on her feet, she slowly, deliberately, leaned into Montana, who slid his arm around her. Vadisk watched them with a flat expression, before saying, “I need to shower,” and disappearing into the other wing of the villa by himself.

Dahlia let Montana lead her downstairs but looked back over her shoulder once, to the dark hallway Vadisk had just disappeared into.

ChapterSix

Montana knew that Lockheed Martin was working on an implantable translator chip, and right now, he would have volunteered for the first human trial just so he could talk to Dr. Cholak without needing Vadisk to translate.

Not that Vadisk wasn’t doing a good job, but the man kept stopping to mutter, “What the fuck?” with a wide-eyed look every time Dr. Cholak said something interesting.

Apparently, their discussion on how and when anatomically modern humans arrived in Eastern Europe, and human evolution in general, was stressing Vadisk out.

Honestly, it was kind of cute to see the big man looking so disconcerted.

Montana looked from Vadisk, crouched beside Dr. Cholak—an expert in the upper middle paleolithic—to Dahlia, who was standing on the lip of the excavated rock shelter, a camera strapped to her chest.

Vadisk was nodding at Dr. Cholak, but then stopped and said something that made the professor smile.

“Please translate,” Montana almost begged.

“I said all that from a tooth?” Vadisk was shaking his head. He paused, eyes going wide. “If these were anatomically modern humans, does that really mean they had the same brain capacity we have?”

“Did you ask Dr. Cholak?”

“I did. And he said yes.” Vadisk looked at the soil and stone around them. “So you’re saying that forty-thousand years ago, someone just like me lived here, yet had only basic stone tools.”

Dahlia carefully joined them at the bottom of the rock shelter, using the ladder Dr. Cholak had brought to descend to the platform where they stood. Luckily, the rock shelter was more of a scoop out of the stone landscape rather than an enclosed cave. At one point, it had probably been a cave, but time had whittled it down to a stony alcove.

Dahlia crouched by Montana’s side, looking at Vadisk. “Why is that upsetting?”

“Because I always thought the men with stone tools were cavemen.” Vadisk pushed his hand against his forehead.

“You’re talking aboutHomo neanderthalensis,” Montana said.

Dr. Cholak nodded, having understood the scientific Latin name, and Vadisk’s flat forehead gesture.

Montana went on to explain. “It’s possible that the people who lived here, who were some of the first documented anatomically modern humans in Eastern Europe and who looked like us, interacted withHomo neanderthalensis. We know there was interbreeding. That’s how and why there are some people with four-percent neanderthal DNA walking around today.”

Vadisk stood and started pacing the platform that had been built by the excavation team and left in place to help protect the site. “Same brain capacity, same ability to dream and create and all that, but they just had basic tools, no agriculture, no medicine. They had to just watch their family die from basic shit.”

“People still die from basic shit like starvation and exposure in modern times,” Dahlia said mildly.

Vadisk threw his hands up. “Yes, but that’s fucked up, and we know it’s fucked up. That was just…how it was.”

“Yes,” Montana agreed, hiding his surprise at Vadisk’s reaction. Imagining what the internal world for these people might have been—would they have fought death and grieved a loss in the same way modern humans did—was one of the things that had driven him to biological anthropology.

Dr. Cholak was frowning, probably because he didn’t know what they were saying, and Dahlia scooted closer to him. His brows rose when she quickly translated what Montana had said. That turned into a quick conversation, during which Dahlia’s smile widened.

Montana narrowed his eyes at her, then looked at Vadisk, who’d stopped pacing to listen. He looked over at Montana, their gazes met, and there was a moment of understanding.

“Montana.” Dahlia turned to him. “I know you originally said you didn’t think this would be worth filming, but Dr. Cholak thinks it would be a good idea.”

Montana suppressed a grimace. “Did you already propose we film?”

He knew the answer based on the way the other man was grinning. Montana was fairly certain that he’d look like a dumbass on camera, which is why he’d originally dodged her question about filming this visit.

“Yes,” Dahlia replied.

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