Free Timeless by Teresa Reasor Page A

Quinn said.
    Regan nodded, rose to her feet, and slipped from the room. Quinn appeared topside with a portable control unit just as the ROV popped up on the starboard side of the vessel. Henry and Rick hurried to swing the arm of the docking unit out and lower it into the water. Quinn maneuvered the vehicle within the wire cage, and with a high, screeching whine the crane folded and brought the unit aboard.
    Stephen grasped the wrench the unit held in its claw. Tugging it free he turned the tool in his hand. “Has Noggie been doing repairs of some sort?”
    “It was hanging on the side of the dam,” Regan said. “Quinn had Noggie recover it. See if it’s still magnetized.”
    He touched the wrench to the frame of the cage and it stuck.
    Regan smiled. She’d been right. The thing was magnetized.
    Stephen’s brows rose. “I’ll be damned.
    Quinn handed the ROV’s control unit to Regan and tugged the wrench loose from the cage, then rubbed his thumb over the metal. “It’s clear of algae, so it couldn’t have been in the water long.” His brows knitted in a frown. “Put it on the work table away from any of the electronics just in case. I’m going to check over the ROV while the rest of you keep an eye out for the divers. Regan, go below and keep tabs on communications.”
    As she reached the door of the control room, she heard a high-pitched voice coming from the speakers. “Team two to Grannos .”
    Regan ran to the mic. “ Grannos here, team two.”
    “We’ve found something at the base of the cofferdam.”
    “What is it?”
    “It’s a skull. A human skull.”
     

 
    CHAPTER 7
     
    Bugger. Quinn bit back the expletive as he dragged his attention away from Regan’s quick, liquid movements as she paced. The narrow control room seemed to have grown smaller since she’d returned from a quick topside trip to notify the other students about the discovery.
    As she strode back and forth, her eyes never left the monitor where the video images were projected.
    “It doesna good to fash yourself about it, lass. They’ll be back topside soon enough with the thing, then you can all see it,” he said. He adjusted the angle of the SUV camera a little farther to the right. The picture grew fuzzy with snow and he leaned forward to punch keys on the control panel to clear the image. The image came in and out of focus. Now what?
    Regan paused by his shoulder. “You don’t realize how much time it takes to document something like this. A grid must be established and soil samples taken. Then each layer of mud will be removed spoon by spoon until the skull is exposed. It will be very fragile and will need to be packed in a Styrofoam container and kept covered with water until it can be preserved. If it is several hundred years old, I’m surprised it survived the trauma of being dug up.”
    “Or it could be some poor sot who fell into the loch while fishing whose body was never recovered.” Quinn resisted the urge to smack the monitor when the snow in the image grew and all they could see were shadows.
    “Not likely, but that’s why the coroner has been notified.”
    She seemed so serious, so focused, the urge to tease her was too great to resist. “Seems a big fuss to me.” He grinned as he caught her narrow eyed look. His smile widened as she sat down in the chair beside him.
    He adjusted the resolution on the screen and the image cleared a little. “What made you want to be an archaeologist?”
    “I’ve always been fascinated with the past and the paths we’ve taken to get where we are today. War, religion, pestilence, and disease have all played a part in our society’s structure. I find it amazing that we’ve actually survived it all. It gives me hope that we may be able to continue doing so. But mostly, I want to learn about who we are. What made us so resilient in the face of such adversity?”
    Quinn’s lips quirked in amusement. “I can tell you that from my own family’s