Augmented by James D. Prescott

Author:James D. Prescott [Prescott, James D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

Site 17

Xinjiang, China

Zhou was still unsure whether his invitation to dinner would go unanswered when he heard the knock at his trailer door.

The crew was busy working to clear the passageway they’d found into the structure. Near the base, countless millennia of mud and grime had formed an almost impenetrable barrier that needed to be chipped away little by little without causing damage. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, archaeology had been a different beast entirely. Schliemann’s excavation of Troy had consisted of gouging a deep trench through the middle of the site. Today, the goal was less about treasure hunting and more about understanding and preserving humanity’s past. The age of the discovery put Zhou in a thoroughly unprecedented situation. A thought, both exciting and unsettling, had been hovering about him since the structure’s discovery. If not human, whose past was he about to discover?

Zhou opened the door to find Li, still dressed in her formal work clothes. She was holding a cactus.

“It is customary not to show up empty-handed,” she said, offering him the plant. For a moment, he thought he caught the glimmer of a smile on her lips, but couldn’t be sure.

“That’s very kind of you,” Zhou acknowledged, stepping aside to let her in. “It won’t surprise you to learn I’m normally terrible with plants. Cacti are the only thing I have a chance of keeping alive.”

He led her a few paces away to the trailer’s kitchenette. The table nearby was set for two. On the counter were takeout containers from a local restaurant. “I took the liberty of ordering us food. Cooking in a dollhouse like this would be thoroughly unpleasant and, given my skills, perhaps even dangerous.”

Zhou definitely got a smile from that one as Li settled into her seat.

“Something to drink?”

She waved a hand. “Oh, I shouldn’t.”

“One glass won’t hurt,” he said, approaching with the Chinese version of a French white wine. “Chow Mein and a drink. You deserve a break after all your hard work.”

Li looked decidedly uncomfortable as Zhou served them both and sat down. “I invited you to dinner for a very simple reason,” Zhou began to explain. “It’s important that we learn to get along. Not only the two of us as individuals, but the two of us as citizens of vastly different countries.”

The muscles in her face grew tense.

Zhou cleared his throat. “Believe me, this isn’t about comparing and contrasting systems. I don’t involve myself in politics, not when there’s a job to be done.” He raised his glass. “To continued cooperation.”

Li clinked his glass and both of them drank. They began to eat. Zhou studied her delicate hands, articulating her chopsticks with expert precision. Years spent alternating his own cultural habits with a knife and fork had suddenly exposed his own inadequacies. But when Zhou had said he had a job to do, Li might not have realized that this dinner was a big part of that. It was only a question of time before she

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