Free Byzantine Gold by Chris Karlsen

that happened. Maybe she was rude to some of the team members. No, then Refik would’ve objected to her presence to MIAR. Maybe something she did made Atakan suspicious of her. No, he’d have documented his suspicions to the Ministry and they’d refuse to allow her access to another site. There was another reason and Charlotte did not like the idea...at all.
    “How well do you know her?” she asked, watching his reaction with increased curiosity.
    “Medium well.”
    “Define ‘medium.’”
    He answered with a single shrug of his good shoulder. His face revealed nothing.
    “Don’t move.” Charlotte went to the woman’s dormitory and came back out with her laptop.
    “What are you doing?”
    She ignored the question and Googled Valko. ‘ A native New Yorker, regular contributor to the New York Times and Washington Post,’ etc. etc., but no photo came with the bio.
    Charlotte went to the NatGeo website. She searched and found one of Valko’s archived articles on Hattusa. Hattusa was one of Atakan’s previous assignments. She speed read the story.
    “Did you read what she wrote?”
    “Yes.”
    “She mentions you by name more times than the archaeologist heading up the project.”
    “Yes, I know.”
    Charlotte went to Archaeology magazine’s site and searched Valko. She found and spun through the first part of the article on Kerkenes, another site Atakan worked. 
    “Quite the flattering story. When was this written? A year and a half ago,” she said, checking the issue date, “just before the project we worked on started.” She cocked her head, locking eyes with him. “You vacationed in New York right around that time.”
    “Yes. As you noted, before our project started, before we met.”
    True. He had a past. Everyone’s entitled to a past. She had a past. That said, her past wasn’t resurrecting itself in order to stir things up in the present.
    “And you said then, that you never date the team members in an on-going project.”
    “I don’t. She wasn’t on the team. She’s a journalist. For the record, I’ve never dated anyone from a project other than you. I would’ve waited until the season was over to approach you, but there were extenuating circumstances. Beside, the project was scheduled for completion in a few days when we got together.”
    “Uh-huh, reading on, ‘Ministry representative, Atakan Vadim provided a wealth of information. The fascinating historical anecdotes one rarely hears on the standard tour’—yadda, yadda. You definitely impressed Ms. Valko.”
    “I suppose.”
    “So, tell me, did you provide a ‘wealth of information’ about Atakan Vadim?”
    “Define ‘wealth of information.’” Atakan tried and failed to sound nonchalant.
    “That’s a yes. Explains why she wanted on this expedition. Tomorrow should prove amusing.”
    “Amusing isn’t the word I’d choose.”

Chapter Twelve

    Charlotte checked the board Refik posted outside his office. It was a general information report with air temperature, sea temperature, and weather forecast.
    “Sea temp is twenty degrees celsius, I’ll be wearing a full wet suit for this one,” Charlotte said.
    Atakan chuckled. “You and your aversion to diving water even slightly chilly. If it’s not bathwater warm, you’re reaching for a wet suit.”
    “Damned straight. What’s the point of having the suits if we aren’t going to use them?”
    “I find it funny someone from such a cold climate and who grew up by a very cold lake is so sensitive to water temperature.”
    “I only swam in Lake Michigan once, when I was little. I froze. It wasn’t any fun. I was too cold to play or splash around like the other kids. The memory of that frigid water is with me permanently. Ugh.”
    The foursome of British divers came over to read the board.
    “Looks to be brilliant,” Derek, the pink-cheeked one from Liverpool said.
    “If the currents aren’t too bad, it’ll be pleasant, but cold,” Charlotte advised.
    “Cold?