The Prophecy (Daughters of the People Series Book 1) by Lucy Varna Read Free Book Online Page B

take? Is there a spy
here at the dig? Has somebody been feeding information to an outsider?”
    “That’s
unlikely. All of the students are loyal to Dr. Lindberg, which leaves only me,
Dani, and you.” Maya slid a sly glance toward him. “I can vouch for me and
Dani. What about you?”
    He laughed
softly. “Touché.”
    “On the other
hand, if data were being transmitted electronically, it would be easy to spy on
the dig without being on site, simply by listening in on phone calls or
tracking e-mails. How did Dr. Lindberg convince you to visit?”
    James grimaced.
“By e-mail and in great detail.”
    “It’s not that
difficult, if you know what to do.”
    “Yeah, but it’s
illegal.”
    “Only if you get
caught.”
    “Good point.”
    They stood for a
few moments more, until the sun had fully risen and the police officer finished
his conversation with Dr. Lindberg. Another officer arrived and, by mutual
consent, Maya and James walked across the site to meet her.
     

Chapter Three
     
    The first full
day after the looting was long and tedious. Maya convinced James to scrounge
breakfast for them from a nearby restaurant while Dr. Lindberg dealt with the
police. The students drifted back on site, though the police refused to allow
anyone inside the taped off areas.
    James returned
with breakfast for Maya and Dr. Lindberg. Behind him came the County Police
Commissioner and the head of the County Administrative Board, the local
authority charged with protecting and overseeing cultural heritage sites like
Sandby borg. James retreated to the less onerous task of overseeing the students,
leaving Maya to help Dr. Lindberg handle the politicians. More officers arrived
to process the scene and created as much of a mess as the looter had. A crew
from a Stockholm television station arrived and made a polite nuisance of
themselves.
    Helene, Dani,
and Indigo returned not long after, joining the growing crowd mingling around
the site. At midmorning, James drove Maya to her cabin and dropped her off
there to shower and change clothes while he did the same in his own cabin. They
grabbed food for the students and, by the time they returned to Sandby borg,
the police had finished their work and cleared the students to begin clean-up.
A single officer stayed behind to serve as a guard and a liaison. He promptly
chased the television crew away.
    Maya and James
cleared one of the tables and set out a variety of sandwich fixings and sides.
Everyone except the Lindbergs ate standing up, huddled into a group. Once lunch
was done and cleaned up, duties were assigned and the real work began.
    The students
were divided between the tents and the storage shed. Paper inventories were
printed out so that item tags could be compared against box labels and
artifacts checked off as they were sorted and repacked.
    Maya and James
volunteered to sort out the trailer. Dani’s assessment of the looter’s path
through the site had been spot-on, surprising Maya not at all. The younger
Daughter had told Maya in an odd moment that she’d been away from the trailer
less than five minutes total while the looter was on site. She’d started on the
normal rounds around the perimeter, familiar after the previous two rounds
she’d made with Indigo, and hadn’t gone far when the power was cut. She’d
immediately returned to the trailer and found the door wide open and Indigo
bleeding on the floor, and had started after the looter only after making sure
Indigo was conscious.
    The looter had
escaped into the shadows, leaving very little of himself behind. The police had
dusted for prints, but Maya suspected they’d find none that shouldn’t be there.
    After
straightening up and cleaning away fingerprint dust as best they could, James
began sorting the photographs while Maya searched for any fragments or photos
that might’ve slid under furniture. Indigo entered the trailer just as they
finished sorting everything out. She sat down on a cushy, worn-out