Page 19 of Indirect Attack
“Will do.”
We saluted, and I left the tent, shower and dinner forgotten. I had to ensure the dig site was secure and ready for whatever might come.
For everyone there, but also for Jasmine.
Chapter 10
Jasmine
MY CRAMPED MUSCLESscreamed at me as I finally got to my feet and straightened. Arching, I pushed my hands into the dip in my lower back to make up for the curled pose in which I’d spent most of the day hunched.
Day one of the excavation of the ancient site the war had uncovered meant slow, delicate work, sometimes physically painful. But standing there, looking at the result of the day’s work, I was thrilled at the progress we’d made. There would be no discovery and no moving forward if we couldn’t uncover the ruins first.
From ground scans and the stone beginning to emerge from the ground, it looked to be some kind of fallen column. Like an iceberg, this was only the tip, the very beginning, and every time I thought about what we might find hidden underneath or attached, and I felt giddy. It made all the hard work entirely worth it.
I knew, however, that not all my giddiness was from the dig. Some of it, I knew, was the knowledge that dinner with Ben waited for me at the end of the day.
I wasn’t sure what to think, and I was glad I’d been so focused on work I hadn’t had time to worry about it. Because despite the warmth I felt at any thought of Ben sitting across a tablefrom me, I felt an odd sense of trepidation at the same time. I hadn’t had time to explore the feeling, but it threw me off slightly whenever I thought about it, tugging uncomfortably at the back of my mind.
Whatever it was, it would have to wait. A glance at my watch told me it was almost six, which meant I had two hours to get back to the hotel, take a shower, and get ready for dinner. And man, did I need a shower—I brushed at the gritty sweat on my forehead, then rubbed at the back of my neck under my ponytail. A hot shower would do me wonders and hopefully help work out the stiffness I knew I would feel in the morning.
“Hey, good work today, Jasmine.”
My cheeks heated at the approval from one of the senior team members on the dig. “Thanks, Jason.”
He shoved his hat back and scratched at his hairline as we stood and surveyed what we’d uncovered.
“A few more days should do it,” he said finally, then turned to me with a teasing grin. “You think you’re up to it? The ultraglamorous parts of our field?”
I laughed, holding out my arm so he could see the difference in the dust-caked front versus the underside, where you could still see the color of my skin. “Don’t you know people in Hollywood pay thousands to lay in this same mud for a couple of hours? And here I have it for free.”
Jason’s grin and chuckle were appreciative of the joke. He nudged me on the shoulder with his hat as he passed, throwing a “see you tomorrow” over his shoulder.
Along with a few others from our team, I finished packing my tools and followed Jason’s path. Four digs were scattered around the damaged area, and ours was the farthest away and out of sight of the central part of the camp.
I topped a small hill, the dirt and cracked cobbles rough beneath my sneakers, just as a Humvee bumped through thegates. The military truck pulled to a stop and two Marines jumped out. My heart gave a loud thump as I realized one of them was undeniably Ben.
My feet sped up as I wondered what he was doing here. He’d told me he was in charge of the Marines who would take over guard of the camp from the Gilderslavian forces tomorrow. Maybe he was here to make sure the changeover went smoothly?
With the camp closing for the day, my team members had been trickling back to their hotels and hostels, and few remained. One was making his way toward the two Marines, his stride purposeful, his expression pinched.
I almost tripped over a protruding rock at the sight of Greg moving to intercept Ben, flashes of their last disastrous encounter racing through my mind—dragging panic along with it.
There was no way, no way at all, I was going to let that catastrophe play out again.
“This is a closed site. You can’t be here.” Greg’s words floated to me over the breeze, and I could see him trying to wave the Marines away as my footsteps picked up speed.
Too far to make a difference, I still notcied the moment Greg recognized one of the Marines. I’d had a faint hope he would have forgotten Ben entirely, but that was apparently not to be. Greg stopped his forward motion, and his expression folded into angry lines. And from our conversation that morning, Ben hadn’t forgotten who was standing before him, either.
“What areyoudoing here?”
Ben, for his part, stood his ground, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m First Sergeant Rusev, stationed at the base here in Gilderslavia. I’m leading the squad taking over guard of this site tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is tomorrow. Today is today—or do you have them confused? Come back when the sun comes up.” Greg’s tone was condescending, as though he were talking to a small child.
I saw Ben and the other Marine share a look, and the second Marine shrugged before Ben looked back at Greg. “I need to speak to the person in charge. I have an urgent matter I need to discuss.”
“The excavation director has gone home for the day, and so has the site manager.”
