Birthright Read Online Free PDF Page B

this . . .” She turned the sealed stone in her hand. “This looks like rhyolite to me. Could be this was a camp—Neolithic campsite. Could be it was more. People of that era were starting to settle, to farm, to domesticate animals.”
    If she’d been alone, if she’d closed her eyes, she could have seen it in her mind. “They weren’t as nomadic as we once believed. What I can tell you, Ms. Campbell, from this very cursory study, is that you’ve got yourself something real sexy here.”
    â€œSexy enough for a grant, a team, a formal dig?”
    â€œOh yeah.” Behind her tea-colored lenses, Callie’s gaze scanned the field. She was already beginning to plot the site. “Nobody’s going to be digging footers for houses on this site for some time to come. You got any local media?”
    The light began to gleam in Lana’s eyes. “A small weekly newspaper in Woodsboro. A daily in Hagerstown. There’s a network affiliate in Hagerstown, too. They’re already covering the story.”
    â€œWe’ll give them more, then bump it up to national.” Callie studied Lana’s face as she tucked the sealed bag in her pack. Yeah, pretty as a sunbeam, she thought. And smart, too. “I bet you come across real well on TV.”
    â€œI do,” Lana said with a grin. “How about you?”
    â€œI’m a killer.” Callie scanned the area again, began to imagine. Began to plan. “Dolan doesn’t know it, but his development was fucked five thousand years ago.”
    â€œHe’s going to fight you.”
    â€œHe’s going to lose, Ms. Campbell.”
    Once again Lana held out a hand. “Make it Lana. How soon do you want to talk to the press, Doctor?”
    â€œCallie.” She pursed her lips and considered. “Let me touch base with Leo, find a place to stay. How’s that motel outside of town?”
    â€œAdequate.”
    â€œI’ve done lots worse than adequate. It’ll do for a start. Okay, let me do some groundwork. You got a number where I can reach you?”
    â€œMy cell phone.” Lana pulled out a card, scribbled down the number. “Day and night.”
    â€œWhat time’s the evening news?”
    â€œFive-thirty.”
    Callie looked at her watch, calculated. “Should be enough time. If I can move things along, I’ll be in touch by three.”
    She started back toward her car. Lana scrambled to catch up. “Would you be willing to speak at a town meeting?”
    â€œLeave that to Leo. He’s better with people than I am.”
    â€œCallie, let’s be sexist.”
    â€œSure.” Callie leaned on the fence a moment. “Men are pigs whose every thought and action is dictated by the penis.”
    â€œWell, that goes without saying, but what I mean in this case is people are going to be a lot more intrigued and interested in a young, attractive female archaeologist than a middle-aged man who works primarily in a lab.”
    â€œWhich is why I’ll talk to the TV crew.” Callie boosted herself over the fence. “And don’t shrug off Leo’s impact. He was a digger when you and I were still sucking our thumbs. He’s got a passion for it that gets people stirred up.”
    â€œWill he come in from Baltimore?”
    Callie looked back at the site. Pretty flatland, the charm of the creek and the sparkle of the pond. The green and mysterious woods. Yes, she could understand why people would want to build houses there, settle in by the trees and water.
    She suspected they had done so before. Thousands ofyears before.
    But this time around they were going to have to look elsewhere.
    â€œYou couldn’t keep him away. By three,” she said again, and swung into the Rover.
    She was already yanking out her cell phone and dialing Leo when she drove away.
    â€œLeo.” She shifted the phone so she could bump up the