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made a good team. Then you quit and joined…his team.”
    Deep down, Jade knew her accusation was not entirely fair. Professor had started out on his team—Maddock ’s team—long before Jade knew either man. Maddock and Professor had gone through SEAL training together and served in the same unit for several years. Even then, he had been “Professor”—always ready with some bit of obscure trivia, but in the years following his term of military service, he had gone on to earn several degrees and had actually taught for a while. Institutional learning had not been a good fit for the former Naval SpecWar shooter, and so he had jumped at the chance to work with the archaeologist ex-girlfriend of his old swim buddy. Jade had welcomed his professional expertise on the Yonaguni investigation, but if she was honest, she had to admit that the real reason she had hired Professor was the chance to get close to one of Maddock’s old friends, and maybe figure out a way to win back her former lover.
    It hadn ’t been one of her better ideas.
    Ultimately, the association had indeed brought Maddock back into her life, but not in the way she had expected. Maddock had gone back to work for the government as part of a secret group, informally called the Myrmidons—a reference to the deadly warriors who had fought with Achilles in the Trojan War—dedicated to rooting out the Dominion ’s influence. Following the events at Yonaguni, Jade and Professor had both been invited to join the Myrmidons on a permanent basis. Although Jade despised the Dominion, the idea of working with Maddock had been too much to deal with. Professor however, had accepted the offer, citing some nonsense about the greater good, and that had been the end of their partnership.
    She couldn ’t really fault him for making that decision. The Dominion was a real threat. Their most recent campaign had resulted in thousands of deaths. It was, quite literally, a war and Professor was, first and foremost, a warrior who had sworn an oath to defend his country. She knew it was petty to be mad at him for making that choice—for choosing to fight the good fight—but it felt more like he had chosen Maddock over her, and that was a bitter pill to swallow.
    Professor cast a quick glance at Hodges before returning his attention to Jade. “Will you give me five minutes to explain? I’ll buy you a coffee.”
    Jade sighed. Prof wasn ’t such a bad guy, and he certainly didn’t deserve to be recipient of her Maddock-focused ire. “Fine. Five minutes.” She looked at Hodges who had been watching the tense exchange with rapt interest. “I’m curious to know how you ended up with the robot guy.”
    Professor nodded. “Brian, give us a few?”
    “ Take as long as you need, Pete. I’ll be here with the gear.”
    Professor turned back to Jade. “So where’s a good place to buy a girl a cup of joe?”
    Jade just shook her head. “Screw that. I need a shot.”
     
    Professor slammed his glass down and grinned in triumph as the smoky liquid blazed a trail from his gullet to his belly. Jade, who had taken only a small sip of her mezcal, merely regarded him thoughtfully as she rolled the half-filled shot glass between a thumb and forefinger.
    “ Beats the hell out of sake, doesn’t it?” she remarked. “But you’re supposed to sip it, not shoot it like an American.”
    Professor glanced around the little hole in the wall Jade had brought him to. Make that “hole in the ground.” The restaurant had been built—if that was the right word—in a deep cave grotto on the edge of the archaeological site. In fact, the terrace where they were now sitting overlooking the gaping cave entrance was built on the flanks of one of the lesser pyramids. As one of the few restaurants actually operating in the archaeological preserve, never mind the unique experience of dining in a cave, it was a natural place for tourists to congregate, and the establishment was bustling with