Effigies Read Online Free PDF

thunderstorm, slumped to the ground without Calhoun’s help. How could Faye and her friends stand up against that many horsepower?
    Calhoun backed up for another assault, and Faye ran forward, taking the opportunity to place herself between him and the mound. Within seconds, she felt Joe at her elbow and Chuck at her back. The rest of the project team filled in around her. They surely provided a formidable barrier in the sense that few humans would be willing to bulldoze that many lives. Mass-wise, however, they represented far less of an obstacle than even the smallest tree lying uprooted at their feet.
    “Mr. Calhoun!” Dr. Mailer cried. Faye reflected again that this relationship would be more effective if someone had asked the man his first name. “Your property is yours. Your property rights are yours. There’s no need to destroy anything. We’re on your side.”
    The cabin door opened and Calhoun’s head poked out. “Bullshit. I’ve seen it happen, more than once. Somebody finds a few arrowheads or an endangered worm. Then the law comes in and tells the person paying the taxes on the land that they can’t farm a little spot. ‘Just to protect the arrowheads or the worm,’ they say. Then they bring in a bunch of experts who basically tear things up and get in the way. And then they write their report that says there’s endangered worms or arrowheads all over the damn place, and the farmer’s left paying the mortgage and the taxes on land that can’t be farmed, ever again. I figure I’d better tear this thing down before you experts tell me it’s so special that I need to go bankrupt to save it.”
    “It’s not just special. It’s irreplaceable,” Oka Hofobi called out.
    “You wouldn’t know that if you hadn’t sneaked onto my land when you were a delinquent kid, now, would you?” He revved the engine. “I got work to do. Step away.” He slammed the door shut, closing himself again into the cabin.
    The seven archaeologists stood firm.
    The tractor started rolling. Its progress was slow, perhaps to show that he didn’t want to mow them down, but it was inexorable. Soon, everyone involved would have to make a decision.
    Bodie blinked first, taking a step out of the tractor’s path. It took a moment for Toneisha to follow him. Faye wasn’t sure how long she could hold out, but she wasn’t ready to cave in yet.
    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dr. Mailer stoop down and put a shoulder into Oka Hofobi’s chest, knocking him off his feet and out of harm’s way with the residual skill of an aging halfback. He tried the same move on Chuck, without success. The two men were well-matched in size, and Chuck was twenty years younger.
    Faye was distracted from her own peril. Chuck had already shown himself to be passionate about his work and eccentric to the point of abnormality. He might be capable of letting himself be crushed to save this mound. Faye was not. But she couldn’t save herself and just watch Chuck die, either. She weighed all of a hundred pounds, but maybe she was big enough to help Dr. Mailer save Chuck.
    One step and one millisecond into her rescue plan, something hit her left side with the force of a brickbat. Joe, who she knew had never played football, had stiff-armed her with a move that would have merited a twenty-yard penalty, at least. Airborne, she flew out of the tractor’s path and landed hard on the exposed roots of a downed tree.
    With every cubic centimeter of air knocked out of her lungs, all Faye could do was fight for breath and watch three big men try to knock each other down. Did being large all your life completely destroy your instinct for self-protection? Chuck was staring down the tractor as if he thought it incapable of crushing a man his size. And Dr. Mailer and Joe were pummeling him into submission with more deliberation than she thought the situation merited. They were certainly big enough to overpower him, but could they do it before all three were