Jurassic Heart by Anna Martin Read Free Book Online

Nancy, and vaguely supervising what Boner was doing as well as setting everything up. I was desperate to go back out on the site and get my hands dirty doing what I did best, but there was responsibility attached to running my own dig, and I took it seriously.
    River and Raven, the infamous Goth Twins, turned up two days after my college kids. Well, River arrived first and her sister came along later in the evening. I hadn’t actually worked with the pair of them for a few years, and I had heard they weren’t working together anymore, so to get them both was a big win and I knew it. It meant I owed Sam big-time, but that wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.
    Having River around was the best thing that had happened to me all week. She was going to be my paleobiologist, which meant I could stick her in the trailer/lab and she could run that side of the operation. Raven was a digger, like me.
    I wasn’t sure if anyone referred to them as the Goth Twins to their faces — I certainly didn’t — but it was a nickname well-known in the right circles. They’d earned it too; terrifyingly petite and pale, both girls had long dark hair, although it wasn’t unusual for them to dye parts of it blue or pink or purple or red. When Raven arrived I noticed she had shaved one side off completely in an undercut. That was good. It meant telling them apart became a lot easier.
    Between them they had a lot of tattoos, but trying to tell them apart from tattoos alone wasn’t a good idea. Raven had waves cresting over her collarbones and, in the same spot, River had two black birds diving in toward her chest, representing her sister. Raven had Japanese designs that started with those waves and continued on down her arms all the way to her wrists. River’s sleeves were black and white, covering the tops of her arms, most of her back, and ribs.
    If you knew the girls well and they were out working in the field, it wasn’t difficult to tell them apart. But in a conference room or a lecture hall or ballroom, with them both wearing dresses or suits or long gowns, they looked like each other’s reflection.
    Outward appearances could be deceiving, and even though they looked like they belonged in a rock band, they were some of the best in their respective fields of study. Both girls were fun to have around, for sure, but more than that, I knew being able to cite them on my reports would make me look good, professional, and accomplished.
    We settled into work quickly, assigning areas to the new members of the team and letting them get familiar with the site and the recent discoveries in their own time. In the downtime between Eric’s dig being dismantled and mine being set up, Boner had put together several packs of information so the new team members could read up on the area, the finds so far, and all the reports.
    After an uncertain few days, Brad the undergrad agreed to come back, adding another number to the team. I liked him — he was a calm, steady presence, and he’d done good work for Eric. I got the impression his loyalty to his former employer had been the main problem keeping him from returning to the site. Sam had obviously given him a good incentive to switch sides.
    Since Brad knew the site already, I had him help me relabel the ground in a more logical way. Then I went about assigning a work space to each person on the new team.
    To the right of the spot I’d reserved for myself was Raven’s area. Farther south, back toward the trailer, was the section Boner had been working previously and was happy to return to. It was completely against all the rules, but I decided to work outward from grid reference A1, beyond the area that had been sectioned off for excavation. Technically it was still within the site where we had permission to dig, so I wasn’t doing anything illegal. The look on Boner’s face told me he didn’t approve — and Mim wouldn’t either.
    Breaking the rules was fun, though, especially when it made Boner