Page 3 of Thawed Gladiator: Varro

Garrison tears his gaze away from the water’s surface, where he’s been waiting for the divers to emerge, and glances dismissively at what I’m showing him.

“Huh, that’s weird,” he mutters, but his attention is already back on the gold.

I grit my teeth in frustration. This could be the discovery of a lifetime, and he’s more interested in the treasure.

“Garrison, once they bring up the first haul, you and Tony the mechanic can count it while Rick and Rowdy go back down to investigate that anomaly. We need to take a closer look.”

Garrison glowers, his brow furrowed. “What? No, they need to keep bringing up the gold. We don’t have time for a detour.”

I meet his gaze, my jaw set with determination. “This could be important, Garrison. We can’t just ignore it.”

He sighs, running a hand through his wild red hair. “Fine. But they bring up all the gold first, then they can help you play archaeologist.”

It’s not ideal, but it’s a compromise I can live with. I nod as I wonder if that is really a person down there in the ice. Frozen in time. It gives me shivers to imagine how everything on the body could be intactfrom an era so long ago.

The gold is almost forgotten. Though my nine percent will be nice, I’m now consumed with what’s entombed in that ice.

Chapter Two

Laura

“Bring up another load, Rowdy! We’re burning daylight here.” Garrison’s booming voice echoes across the water as he paces along the shore, his eyes fixed on the divers.

Aware that Garrison won’t let a single coin escape his watchful eye and eager to investigate our discovery, I seize the opportunity while he’s distracted by the divers. As they return for another load, I sift through the gold and discreetly pocket one of each denomination.

Not just goldenaureifrom Rome, butstatersfrom several Greek city-states anddaricsfrom Persia. I stuff them in my pockets to examine later in my room in the compound.

As I lean against a craggy rock, my impatience grows with each minute that ticks by. The divers have been hauling up gold for hours, making multiple trips with necessary decompression stops during each dive. While the sight of the gleaming coins spilling from their bags is certainly impressive, my mind keeps wandering back to the anomaly frozen in the ice.

I glance at the drone’s feedback on my tablet, zooming in on the human-shaped silhouette. The more I study it, the more convinced I become that it’s a person—perfectly preserved. This is someone who lived and breathed almost two thousand years ago. In the column of ice that flickers as the sun makes its way through the churning waves, I can just make out theshape of shoulders, a tilted face perhaps, and… maybe even outstretched hands?

“How much longer? The tide is coming in, and if the current shifts, the divers will have to fight against it,” I call out to Garrison, my fingers gripping the tablet’s edge, panic churning in my gut.

He shoots me a grin, his eyes glinting with the same excitement I saw when we first discovered the gold. “Just a few more trips, Turner. We’re going to be rich beyond our wildest dreams.”

I force a smile, but my heart isn’t in it. The thrill of the treasure pales in comparison to the potential historical significance of the frozen figure.

As the air turns colder and the sky darkens, signaling a storm, the divers emerge from the water, their bags bulging with the last of the gold. Garrison lets out a whoop of joy, clapping them on the back as they drag the heavy bags onto the shore, letting Tony load them into plastic bins and onto the skid we have waiting.

“All right, boys,” I say, stepping forward. “Time to investigate that anomaly. Remember, if it looks like my hunch is correct, chip it out of the ice carefully, leaving a wide margin. We don’t want to damage it.”

Rick and Rowdy exchange a patronizing glance, then nod, grabbing their tools and diving back into the frigid water. I watch them through the drone’s camera, my heart pounding as they approach the icy abyss. I wish it were me fighting the current and exploring this find, but Garrison doesn’t trust me with his equipment. He’s probably right. Although I got dive certified in anticipation of this expedition, I don’t have a lot of experience.

The divers work methodically, their movements precise as they chip away at the ice surrounding the figure. With each chunk that breaks free, more details emerge—the outline of a muscular arm, the curve of a strong jaw, and the sheer power of his thighs that look as though they could still run a marathon after all these years.

“It’s a man,” I breathe, my eyes widening. “An ancient man, preserved in ice.”

Garrison leans over my shoulder, squinting at the screen. “Holy shit. That’s incredible.”

To keep my mind busy as the divers descend, I do the math.

How ancient Romans lifted a chest that heavy is a testament to their engineering. Tony divided the coins into durable plastic bins, each ready to transport to theEndurance.

The coins made in that time are 95% pure gold. At today’s prices, that’s around twenty-six million dollars. My nine percent will still be over two million. As I do the rough math in my head, the sudden wealth still pales in comparison to the excitement of discovering the man in the ice.

As the sky turns darker, casting the world in bleak shades of blue and gray, the divers finally break the figure free from its icy prison. My mind races as I watch them attach cables around the block of ice and Garrison hooks them to a hydraulic winch to pull it up.

The divers accompany their morbid find up through the water, stopping to decompress just as they did when they were loaded with gold. The icy tomb is loaded onto the skid while it’s still submerged, then onto shore.

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