from before. “We found someone, didn't we?”
Ritgen nodded with extra enthusiasm. “Found, dug up, brought here!”
Katherine pointed to the floor. “Here? Here as in Tollund Laboratories?”
“They’re having the body brought in right now. Come on, you have to see it.”
Katherine quickly rose from her chair and followed Ritgen into the hallway. The two of them walked with the same brisk pace that made everyone else in the laboratory out of breath when they tried to keep up with them.
“I still can’t believe how all of this happened. Do you realize how close we were to our funding being cut off? You have GOT to see how this looks. The preservation is just unexplainable.”
“What do you mean?” Katherine asked.
“You’ll just have to see it when we get there. It’s fascinating. I’ve already started writing my speech to the press in my head.” Katherine’s pace quickened to the point where she was practically jogging.
Ritgen did his best to keep up, sucking in air as he tried to speak to Katherine as they continued walking down the hallway.
“You know... uh, Dr. Sierra...” Katherine showed no signs of acknowledging him, her pace not slowing down a bit as they made a left turn down the sterile white hallway. The sound of the fluorescent lights' buzzing filled in the spaces Ritgen left with his awkward stuttering. Considering how quickly this accomplished analyst shifted from loud and confident to quiet and bashful, Katherine would have easily deduced that she was talking to two different people. However, her tunnel vision had her looking ahead and her body was obliged to keep moving.
Dr. Ritgen tried again. “Ummm... Kath... I mean Dr. Sierra, I just wanted to, uhhh...” His original sentence drifted off into nothingness, so he tried another. “You've been here for, what, about 10 years?”
“If you say so,” Katherine answered, her eyes still staring straight ahead.
Ritgen cleared his throat and then continued. “Well, yes, anyway I wanted to.... uh.... thank you once... umm... once again for everything you've done since you've arrived. If it weren't for your... uhh... constant pressuring of the backers, our funding would have been pulled only two years after we revealed the, uhhh...” He paused for a moment, then finished his sentence. “...the Ritgen sword.”
The name was music to Franklin Ritgen's ears, and he suddenly felt his confidence returning as his mind drifted away from the crush he always had on Katherine. He thought back to the moment that made his career, the moment of glory he was granted when he introduced the world to the sword his team had excavated. “That was around the time when you first came to work with us, is that right?”
Katherine turned toward him and looked into his eyes for the first time since she left her office, giving him a smile that threatened to derail the confidence that had just resurfaced. “It was an amazing discovery, Franklin.”
Ritgen's heart soared, just as it did each time she referred to him by his first name. He failed to hide his joy as he gave her an adolescent smile that could only be described as goofy, and when he responded, he kept his stuttering under control by just talking about the sword. “Yes, it definitely was. I mean, to uncover an object so unique and beautiful and so...” He hesitated to even say the word, just as everyone on his team secretly said it among themselves, yet were ordered by Ritgen to keep the press from hearing it. “...otherworldly. I mean, there's really no other way to say it, right? Flawless in its forging, made out of a metal that nobody can identify. I can't wait to get it back so we can get back to studying it.”
Katherine asked Franklin, “So this person that's in the lab now, do you think it's linked somehow to the sword?”
“Two different discoveries found less than a mile from each other? I don't think it's a coincidence, and based on what we heard from the excavation team, this
Ritgen nodded with extra enthusiasm. “Found, dug up, brought here!”
Katherine pointed to the floor. “Here? Here as in Tollund Laboratories?”
“They’re having the body brought in right now. Come on, you have to see it.”
Katherine quickly rose from her chair and followed Ritgen into the hallway. The two of them walked with the same brisk pace that made everyone else in the laboratory out of breath when they tried to keep up with them.
“I still can’t believe how all of this happened. Do you realize how close we were to our funding being cut off? You have GOT to see how this looks. The preservation is just unexplainable.”
“What do you mean?” Katherine asked.
“You’ll just have to see it when we get there. It’s fascinating. I’ve already started writing my speech to the press in my head.” Katherine’s pace quickened to the point where she was practically jogging.
Ritgen did his best to keep up, sucking in air as he tried to speak to Katherine as they continued walking down the hallway.
“You know... uh, Dr. Sierra...” Katherine showed no signs of acknowledging him, her pace not slowing down a bit as they made a left turn down the sterile white hallway. The sound of the fluorescent lights' buzzing filled in the spaces Ritgen left with his awkward stuttering. Considering how quickly this accomplished analyst shifted from loud and confident to quiet and bashful, Katherine would have easily deduced that she was talking to two different people. However, her tunnel vision had her looking ahead and her body was obliged to keep moving.
Dr. Ritgen tried again. “Ummm... Kath... I mean Dr. Sierra, I just wanted to, uhhh...” His original sentence drifted off into nothingness, so he tried another. “You've been here for, what, about 10 years?”
“If you say so,” Katherine answered, her eyes still staring straight ahead.
Ritgen cleared his throat and then continued. “Well, yes, anyway I wanted to.... uh.... thank you once... umm... once again for everything you've done since you've arrived. If it weren't for your... uhh... constant pressuring of the backers, our funding would have been pulled only two years after we revealed the, uhhh...” He paused for a moment, then finished his sentence. “...the Ritgen sword.”
The name was music to Franklin Ritgen's ears, and he suddenly felt his confidence returning as his mind drifted away from the crush he always had on Katherine. He thought back to the moment that made his career, the moment of glory he was granted when he introduced the world to the sword his team had excavated. “That was around the time when you first came to work with us, is that right?”
Katherine turned toward him and looked into his eyes for the first time since she left her office, giving him a smile that threatened to derail the confidence that had just resurfaced. “It was an amazing discovery, Franklin.”
Ritgen's heart soared, just as it did each time she referred to him by his first name. He failed to hide his joy as he gave her an adolescent smile that could only be described as goofy, and when he responded, he kept his stuttering under control by just talking about the sword. “Yes, it definitely was. I mean, to uncover an object so unique and beautiful and so...” He hesitated to even say the word, just as everyone on his team secretly said it among themselves, yet were ordered by Ritgen to keep the press from hearing it. “...otherworldly. I mean, there's really no other way to say it, right? Flawless in its forging, made out of a metal that nobody can identify. I can't wait to get it back so we can get back to studying it.”
Katherine asked Franklin, “So this person that's in the lab now, do you think it's linked somehow to the sword?”
“Two different discoveries found less than a mile from each other? I don't think it's a coincidence, and based on what we heard from the excavation team, this
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