Free Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt Page A

burdened with the conviction that the loss of forests had already exceeded the limits from which recovery might be possible. He also believed that women in general and Lisa in particular could not resist his charms. Lisa, who had planned to cap the evening in her usual style, changed her mind. April had been unimpressed with her date as well, and the two had fled together into the Washington night.
    They had been close friends since.
    Lisa was therefore not surprised when April called and asked to see her. Her interest grew when her friend refused to state the reason for the meeting.
    The day after the phone call, April arrived with a nondescript individual in tow. “Lisa,” she said, “this is Max Collingwood.”
    The women knew each other too well to indulge in small talk. April quietly explained what had been happening at Tom Lasker’s farm. When she had finished, Lisa was slow to respond. “You’re certain?” she asked. “How about fraud?”
    “There’s no mistake. And fraud is not possible.” April slid a manila envelope onto the table, opened it, and took out a handful of photos. They were pictures of the yacht. Interior. Exterior. Sails. Close-ups of rails and stanchions. And the markings.
    “They are odd,” Lisa agreed. “And there’s no language match?”
    “None that we can find,” said April.
    Lisa continued to study the pictures, but her mind shifted to April. The information was so outrageous that she drew back to reassess her old friend. She knew what was coming, and she had to ask herself whether this was an effort to con her. April wouldn’t do it, she was sure. But what about this Collingwood?
    “So what are your conclusions?” she asked. “Where did the element, the boat, come from?”
    April smiled wearily. “Everything’s guesswork beyond what we’ve told you. We have no conventional explanation.”
    “Do you have an un conventional one?”
    “Yours is as good as anybody’s,” said April.
    Lisa nodded, walked over to her desk, and took out a checkbook. “Where do you go from here?”
    “We want to take a close look at the area. See if there’s anything else buried up there.”
    “What do you need to do that?”
    “A ground-search radar. We can rent one at a reasonable price.”
    “But what could you possibly find? Another boat?”
    “Maybe,” said Max.
    “But you’ve already got one . I can understand thattwo is better than one, but in what way would a second boat advance your knowledge?”
    “There might be remains,” said April.
    “Ah. After ten thousand years? And some of it in the water? I hardly think so. You’d do better to think about where they might have stopped for hot dogs.”
    The chemist leaned forward, and their eyes locked. “Lisa, they had to have a way to get here. There’s a possibility they never went home.”
    Lisa listened to everybody breathe. “How much do you need?”
     
    When GeoTech’s ground-search radar unit showed up to begin its probe, Max was there. He and the Laskers assumed that if anything was actually still in the ground, they would find it right away. If they found nothing, that would be the end of it.
    Max did not like being associated with UFOs. Didn’t look good for him or for Sundown Aviation, and he resolved to keep a low profile. But on the other hand, if there was anything to it, intense media coverage and maybe a lot of money was not out of the question.
    The GeoTech team consisted of three people working out of a large sand-colored van. The crew chief was an energetic, rather precise young woman who made the company jumpsuit look pretty good. Her name was Peggy Moore, and she opened the conversation by asking Max what they were looking for. “The work order’s a little vague on that point,” she added.
    “Anything unusual,” said Max.
    That was not a satisfactory reply. Moore had intense eyes, a quick frown, and a schedule that kept her far too busy to cope with someone who wanted to mess around. “Try me