Golems Prt 5

I know that this is a rather long short story (twenty six pages in total) but I had no limit and every time I sat down to write or change something it just got longer and longer. Somehow it took on a life of its own and would not stop :-)

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Trisha woke up with a start her hair mussed into her pony tail. Fumbling for her watch she saw that it was already eleven o’clock in the morning. With a groan she fell back into her sleeping bag and promptly sat up as she heard rumbling somewhere outside. Trisha sat back up and stuck her head out the tent and saw a much bigger digging machine on the far side of the hill eating away at the earth. After gathering a few items she made her way to the showering area set aside on the back of their small camp. After half an hour of simply enjoying getting clean she finally dressed and made her way to the food tent. There she saw Johnny sitting with a few bandages here and there, “Morning you. I am surprised to see you up and about.” said Johnny as she entered the tent. With a look of amusement she answered, “I should be saying that to you. And next time you want to go swimming please don’t pick some dingy hole.” Johnny laughed, got up and went over to the coffee urn. He made two cups and he set one in front of Trisha who asked “What’s all this here?” Johnny looked at the diggers and said, “That is from the university believe it or not. The professor was up super early this morning and got onto the radio and satellite phone and everything. Seems someone wants what’s down there.” Trisha drank her coffee in silence when she heard angry voices come towards the tent.
“Ye cannot trust that man!”
“If you do not like my business, you can leave!”
To her surprise Trisha heard both Conall and Professor Ashworth shouting at each other. With a look of surprise at Johnny she went outside and saw the two men glaring at each other, “That man is a bastard and he works fer an even bigger bastard!”
“Yes well a bastard he may be, he helped fund our project. So we would not be here if it was not for him. So again you can shut up and like it or go back to some pub somewhere!” With that the professor stalked away back to the diggers, Conall threw his hands up and walked off in the opposite direction. “Trisha, are you coming?” said the professor turning back to her and Johnny. With a look of shock at professor she simply said “No.” and walked after Conall. As she caught up to him she touched his arm, “What’s going on? I have never seen the professor like that?” Conall slowed down and sighed, “The man he’s working for is a crook. I know the two so-called university representatives that were sent here today.” He indicated with his head and nodded towards a black Mercedes sitting on the road. Two men were standing next to it talking animatedly, “An’ I kind of hit the smaller one.” Trisha gave him a look of surprise, “What? He’s my cousin.” Conall started walking again and Trisha hurried to catch up with his sudden start, “So who do they work for?”
“Some shady business man. He has been known to have dealings everywhere but no proof has ever been found, an’ the police don’t want to be sued by his high-priced toadies.”

“I remember now. The professor was telling me about him, but that was as Johnny fell into the hole. I forgot about it with all the excitement, he said some wealthy business man funded this and other digs around Europe. Apparently he was looking for something...” Trisha trailed off with a look of alarm at Conall.

“You don’t think we found what it is he wants? I mean this is not a normal Celtic site.”

“Don’t know lass, but we’d best be careful. An’ I’m sorry you had te hear me have a go at the professor.”
“Yes well, I was more surprised by his reaction.”
“He is in a corner an’ doesn’t know where te turn.”
With a sigh to herself Trisha looked at all the diggers and workmen and said, “Well at least the project will go faster now and we can work on that tablet.” Conall nodded, took her hand and kissed the fingers, “Best get back lass, don’t want you te get into more trouble.” She let go of his hand reluctantly and walked slowly back to the food tent with much on her mind.

The next four days passed in a flash of digging, cataloguing and searching. The diggers broke through the roof of the cavern as delicately as possible. A few of the stone men were hit or buried by the falling rocks and boulders but, to everyone’s surprise, none of those statues broke or chipped. The professor could not explain that and nether could the two representatives of the university, who showed themselves to be surprisingly competent in the field of Celtic artefacts. The two men stayed to themselves, often driving back to the city in the late afternoon and driving through the next morning. The third day after the discovery came around and the two men drove in from the town in their now dusty black car, the country roads were not too kind on the German machine. The fifth day slowly drew to a close when the two men walked into the commune tent. “So me and my esteemed colleague here decided that you have all been working so hard.” indicated the man identified as Conall’s cousin to the larger man, “That we think you all need a night off.” The students looked at the two in surprise and then to Professor Ashworth. “There’s no need to worry this was cleared by our employer and the university. In fact they agreed with the idea.” said the smaller man with a look at the professor who lowered his gaze. “Yes, they have a point.” the professor sounded tired as he raised his eyes again, “Maybe we should take the night off, all of you.” A small cheer filled the tent as the students all got to their feet. “We arranged for transport already so go get ready, all of you!” called the shorter man above the noise, “All of you...” this last remark the shorter man said still looking directly at the professor.” The students filed out and spent the next two hours all getting ready. Three Landrovers came out of the growing dusk to fetch the students; the professor said he would remain saying that he would just get in the way and would not cause any trouble while they were away. “Is that everyone?” called the taller of the two men to the lead Landrover. Johnny stuck his head out and called back “Yeah, yeah, we’re all here. Let’s go! We need beer!” The Landrovers drove off with the students all chanting beer into the night. As they watched the three vehicles drive off the shorter of the two said, “Alright we aren’t paid to stand here, let’s get to work.”

Half an hour later Trisha stumbled from her tent grumbling, “Stupid, stupid. Wait for everyone to use the shower and fall asleep!” she said to herself trying to struggle into her boots. She muttered to herself as she made her way to the food tent and suddenly realised that it was very quiet in the camp.

“Did I miss them?”     

Trisha looked into the dark food tent and saw no movement. Swearing under her breath she looked outside and said “Damn, trust me to miss the only night off.” She stood for a moment in the dark when she heard singing. Going around the tent she saw a dark figure near the hole. Jogging she neared the figure. As she got closer the singing stopped long enough for her to now hear the person drink from something in a bottle. It was the professor.
As she stopped near him she looked around and asked “Professor? What are you doing? Is everyone gone?”
“Hmm? Wassat?” he replied suddenly turning around at her voice, “Oh, is you Trisha... Yes they’re all gone... Gone!”

“Uh... Professor are you drunk?”
“Jus a little. Kept this for celebrating.. So... So I’ma celebrating our find.” He slurred into the darkness away from Trisha. Trisha grabbed his arm and hand and took the bottle from him. “Thas’ mine. My bottle of ... Of Michael Collins Irish whiskey.” he said in protest, his face screwing up in concentration as he remembered the label.

“Dammit, Professor? What the hell is going on here?”
“I made them a deal, if we found anything the benefactor takes it all. All!” the professor sang into the night air, “An’ now we have to pay the devil. This businessman wants these stone men.” The professor draped an arm around Trisha and whispered conspiratorially, “He wants them.”
With a push Trisha moved the professor away as the strong scent of whiskey hit her. “So now what happens?” she asked, the professor swayed and tried to focus on her. “Professor, I said what happens now!”
“We take what we want. That includes both these stone men and that tablet we know you found.” came an answer behind her. As she turned around she saw the short man whose name she had found out was Liam standing with the taller man. The two circled around and stood closer to the professor. “None of you were supposed to be here. But oh well.” Liam carried on coming closer to Trisha and the professor. She backed away closer to the hole while the taller man pushed the professor. “Now listen here! I am a professor of archaeology!” he cried out to the taller man pointing a finger under the man’s nose, “And you will treat me as such!”
With a look at his companion Liam said “Well you heard the professor. He is an expert on archaeology. Let’s give him one last hole to explore” The taller man put both his hands onto the professor’s chest and simply pushed. The drunken professor stumbled backwards and for a moment managed to stop his backward momentum, at the edge of the hole. “Oh...” was all he managed before he fell into the darkness without a sound. “No! Professor!” shouted Trisha as the man disappeared, “You bastards!” She launched herself at the shorter man punching out wildly. Surprisingly to both Trisha and her intended target her fist landed with a crack against his nose and cheek. Both tumbled to the ground, Trisha from her momentum, the shorter man from the surprisingly strong punch. As Trisha got to her feet a fist crashed into the back of her head. She had forgotten about the taller of the two in her rage. “Ah, fuck! The bitch broke my nose!” moaned the other man sitting up, “Throw her in! She can die with that idiot Ashworth!”

Trisha felt herself being picked up but was too groggy to fight back. “In ye go lass.” said the taller man with an accent that sounded a bit like Conall’s, “Won’t be long in dying.” Suddenly she flew through the air and darkness took her as it took the professor.

Liam muttered to the taller man and took out a dirty handkerchief, as he held to his bloody nose he said, “Come on. The men’ll be here to get what we need. I want that tablet.” The taller man looked up and said “It’s gonna rain again.” As Liam looked at his partner in anger, he looked up and saw the black clouds on the horizon, he swore, “Great.” With that the two men walked back towards the tents as thunder growled overhead. Rain started falling gently and washed into both the original hole Joshua unearthed and the second one above the stone statues. The two men entered the food tent and the shorter one sat down. “Go get the bloody tablet from the bitch’s tent. Broke my bloody nose.” he said to his taller partner and dabbed at the wound. “She got ye good, Liam.” said the taller man almost smiling as he walked out into the rain. Muttering to himself, the shorter man tried to set his nose right with a pull swearing against the renewed pain. An arm circled his neck and he was yanked upright, a forearm crushing his windpipe.
“What did ye do with the girl, Liam?” hissed a voice in his ear.
With a wheeze he tried to reply, the arm slackened its hold slightly allowing Liam to answer, “She... She’s in the hole.”
“What do you mean in the hole?”
“We were to get rid of any witnesses and knew that idiot professor would not stay away.” With a grin into the darkness Liam carried on, “And she decided to join him down there. One way tr.. Argh!”
The forearm tightened once more cutting off his air. After a few seconds Liam stopped struggling and he was dropped onto the floor. Conall looked down at him and sighed. “You always were a bloody fool, Liam.” Conall walked out into the rain and went to his tent, there he got a harness and rope and went to the second hole. Lashing the rope around one of the still standing digging machines he climbed into the harness and stood at the edge of the dark. “Hate night climbing, an in the rain too!” he lamented to himself, “Please be alright lass.” And with that he lowered himself into the hole.

Trisha wondered just how deep the hole was. The darkness was complete around her, well so she thought. But after a minute or two she saw that this was not true. A soft blue glow came from above her. Craning her head upwards she saw what appeared to be the shadow of an old man dressed in furs and leathers holding her just above the ground by the ankle. With a nod to her he let her go to tumble the last meter to the ground and moved over to the professor. The man's broken body lay across the broad shoulders of one of the stone statues, his blood running down the body and head like some kind of macabre hood. The glowing figure looked at the dead body and up at the hole where the rain started coming in, a weary look on his face; with a shake of his spectral head the figure disappeared for a moment and reappeared on top of the stone dais. Trisha made her way to the dais and climbed up. The old bodies were still there, they had not been removed yet by the students.  The glowing figure sat down in the position of the skeleton against the wall and slowly vanished.
"Oh...I see. You were a shaman or something." Trisha whispered to herself kneeling next to the skeleton as darkness once again closed around her. She sat down in the dark with a sigh and wondered how long the old man had been keeping watch over the site. Another glow off to the side caught her attention in the dark, but this was a brighter light that stabbed the dark. It was a torch. She clambered down as quickly as she dared in the dark nearly falling once. Trisha made her way to the light, but as she got closer she thought what would happen if it was one of the men. Slowing down she tried to be as quiet as possible to get to the light which had find the dead professor.
"Aye professor, ye fool." said Conall's voice sadly as his torch found the dead man.
"Conall!"
The torch turned to face her and quickly dropped out of her eyes. "Thank the Lord. Ye're alright." he replied relief flooding his voice. He embraced her and carried on "How did ye survive?"
"You wouldn't believe me."
She led him to the dais and the two climbed back up, "He saved me." Trisha said and pointed to the shaman's skeleton. As she said that a blue glow drifted from the remains and the figure of the old man stood up once again. He looked at Conall and after a few minutes spoke to him, with a look of surprise Conall answered in a similar fashion.
“You understand him?”
“He’s speaking something like Gaelic... Well more like a very, very old version of it.” as he looked at figure and went on, “I can kind of understand him.” Conall spoke to the figure again who smiled in a grim way and shook its head. One spectral hand pointed to the professor’s body and then to the rain pouring in through the hole. Conall frowned and nodded and looked at Trisha. “Well he says we are in trouble. Apparently the professor’s blood, being salty and the rain is undoing his spell he set here ages ago.” Conall indicated at the stone statues, “And these will awaken.”

With a stunned look on her face Trisha asked “Is he serious?” and a few seconds later added to herself, “He is a blue, glowing man Trish. Of course he is serious.”

She looked back at the old figure “So what happens now?” Conall rubbed his face and sighed, he looked back at the figure who spoke to him. “Well apparently they’ll awaken in a few moments an’ kill everyone not belonging to either the clan responsible for these statues or their creators.” A low groan echoed through the chamber and sigils etched into the walls started to also glow. A creaking came from the nearest statues as the head on one moved slowly.
“Crap. We need te get outta here.” said Conall with a look at the giants.
“The original tunnel!” exclaimed Trisha, suddenly remembering the hole in the wall, “We can get there if we run.”
“I don’t think running is an option...” answered Conall as three statues slowly straightened and turned to face the two humans on dais. 

Golems Prt 4

Here is the fourth part, when I started this one I never realised just how big it would become. Sometimes stories have a life of their own :-) 

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Both Trisha and Professor Ashworth stood mouths agape.
“No, no, no... Not again!” shouted the professor to the wind. Trisha got as near to the hole as she dared and tried to look in but all she saw was darkness and water. Back to the camp, get Conall.

With that thought in her head she sprinted back towards the camp. There she found Conall directing some of the students to store the equipment and plug some leaks.
“Alright lads, move that crate towards the centre here... And get...” he stopped himself when he saw Trisha standing in the entrance, trying to catch her breath, “Nice brisk wind, lass, perfect weather...”
“Johnny’s fallen into the hole!”
The rest of the students started talking and calling out to Trisha, “Alright! Enough! Let her speak!” As Trisha explained the story, Conall sent two of the students to get more rope, tent pegs and tarpaulin. Trisha was bouncing on the balls of her feet impatiently waiting for the other students to return.
“Where are they? This is getting ridiculous!”

“Relax lass, we’ll get him. It’s only been two minutes.”

“You didn’t see him fall in!” she shouted back at him. The other students looked at her, worry stamped over their features, one of the other female students started to cry. With a sigh Trisha took a deep breath, “Alright lass, it’s not your fault.” She nodded at this and gave a sad smile and called over to Mary. “Sorry...” Mary gave a small smile and blew her nose on a rumpled tissue. As Trisha gazed out into the storm the students came back with the items Conall asked for. “A’right! We can move now!”

With that he gathered up the items and a hammer from the table and ran out into the darkening storm, the rest of the students followed. As they came to the hole they saw the professor still standing there, he had not moved since Trisha had run off. Conall set the students to work; they covered one side of the hole with the other tarpaulin and used it to shield it as best they could. He then set the extra rope a few metres from the edge of the hole, explaining over the wind and thunder that he did not want the ground to crumble and the rope to fall in. Conall looked at the wind and the clouds and judged that the storm had played out most of its energy and was subsiding.
“Ye all stay here in case I need more help or somethin’.” And with that he lowered himself into the wet earth. Trisha picked up the rope and lowered herself in before anyone could say anything else. As she looked below her she saw that Conall had reached the bottom, the light of his torch playing over the room. As she made the bottom she saw that the water was almost up to her hips, and that it was draining away at a rapid pace. Trisha looked around and saw Conall standing near a wall.

“I thought I told ye to stay there.”

“This is my dig, and my responsibility. Not yours.”
“Well said lass.” he answered with a smile, “So what do ye make of this?” He let his torch light play over a gaping hole in the wall. As Trisha stared at it in stunned silence, she suddenly remembered, “This was blocked off... I knew it was not a full block!” she exclaimed in excitement.
“Well it may have saved the lad’s life. Come on.”
He led the way into the new hole. There a tunnel went down into the dark, the water gleefully made its way down the carved stairs. After a few metres the tunnel made a small bend, there the two found Johnny lying senseless against a wall. Conall crouched down and felt for his pulse; he let out a small sigh. “Aye, he’s alive. An’ by the looks of it only has a few bruises and scrapes.” He looked at Trisha and continued, “Run back and fetch two others, we can maybe get him out of here.”
As she disappeared Conall shone his torch around the tunnel, “What’s down there lad.” he said quietly to himself. A groan from Johnny startled him from his thoughts, “Alright lad, yer alright. Can ye hear me?” Another groan answered Conall. Slowly he felt Johnny’s legs and arms, looking for any breaks or signs of internal injuries.

“Lad, can ye hear me? Johnny?”

“Five more minutes...”

Conall laughed and said, “Ye’ll be alright lad. You’re pretty lucky.” As he said that Johnny’s eyes opened and squinted in the torch light.
“Wha... Where am I?”
“Ye fell into the hole. Do you have any pain? Can ye feel your arms an’ legs?”

Johnny muttered and groaned to himself then tried to stand.
“Easy lad, take it slowly.”
After a few minutes Johnny said, “Well I can feel everything. Though I feel like a huge bruise.”
“Stay put, the other’ll be here te get you out.”

As he said that voices Trisha slogged back with three other students in tow.

Conall stood and let them work; he offered advice where necessary but saw that the students had credible medical training.
“Your doin’ I take?” he asked, and indicated to a basic medical kit Samantha carried with her.
“Also made everyone take a basic first aid course or two. Only for light wounds, nothing like what happened to Joshua.” replied Trisha as Johnny was picked up carefully. She looked back at Conall and saw that he was peering into the darkness down the tunnel.
“What are you thinking?”
“Weeelll I want te know what’s down there.”

Trisha looked back at the others carrying Johnny out and saw he was in good hands. With a look at Conall she said, “I am so ahead of you!” and skipped past him jogging down the incline; the Irishman chuckled to himself and set out after her. The tunnel extended deep into the earth, Trisha could see that it was old, as old as the room behind them, yet it was still in very good condition, and it was surprising stable as well, she mentioned it to Conall. He stopped a minute to have a look at the walls. “These’re old alright, ye can also sense their strength.” As he said that he took Trisha’s hand and held it to the wall. As he held her hand she felt a strange warmth coming from the rock, though it was a slick warmth, and not pleasant, almost like the rock was breathing.
“Oh that’s kind of nasty. That does not feel right.”

“Oh aye, but it has strength and that has kept it from collapsing.”

Trisha realised that Conall still held her hand and she realised how warm and right it felt, especially after the foulness of the wall. Conall lifted her hand, kissed it and said smiling “When we get out of here, I am taking ye out.”
Trisha blushed slightly and was glad for the dark that hid her face, “I will hold you to it.”
With that he led her deeper into the darkness.    

For thousands of years they had stood in darkness and silence. Until one day torch light and sound filtered down a dark corridor leading to the golem chamber. Someone was coming, if someone had been there it would have seemed as if the dust on a great stone dais shifted and moved along the floor, but it could have just been the new air filtering into the chamber. Two lights broke the darkness and the world changed.

The tunnel ended abruptly for the two explorers as it opened up into a vast cavern. Trisha and Conall stopped for a moment to get their bearings and rest. As Trisha leaned against the wall of the tunnel Conall played his torch into the darkness.
“Well I’ll be... Trisha.”

“Yes... Coming... Just a second.” she replied with a push against the wall, the tunnel had been longer than she expected and fatigue had started setting in. She made her way tiredly to where she saw Conall’s light and stopped, all thoughts of fatigue gone. Out of the darkness loomed a giant stone man, one arm was raised up as if to strike something.
“Oh... Wow...” she breathed as she made sense of the nine foot tall statue in the meagre light of two torches. She walked up to the giant and ran her hands over its surface, marvelling at its solidness. Conall stepped past her and played his torch over the chamber.
“You might want te see this lass.”
Trisha walked up to him and saw the entire chamber was filled with stone statues, a few seemed to be ready for battle, some with fists raised, others bent over as if recoiling from an attack; but the majority of them stood with their arms at their sides... As if waiting for something.

“What’s that?” asked Trisha as her torch light picked out a stone dais off to one side. She looked at Conall who shook his head. The two picked a path through the statues and made their way to the dais, they saw that some of the statues had been deliberately destroyed or broken by time, which they could not say. As they climbed onto the dais Trisha let out a gasp, “There are bodies here!” Conall climbed up next to her and saw four ancient skeletons lying in the dust, a fifth one was propped against the wall. “These were arranged for burial but were kept here... Is this some strange tomb?” Trisha asked as she gazed at the remains, “Hello... What’s this?” she said picking up an ancient stone slab in the lap of the seated skeleton. Conall came and stood next to her, shining his torch down at the tablet he said, “That looks like really old Gaelic. But I am not sure.”

“Well we had better get back up top and inform the professor of this.”

With that the two made the long way back up the tunnel and finally back to the surface. As Conall helped Trisha out of the hole she looked up at the clear night sky. She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air and a smile spread across her face. Turning to Conall she kissed him lightly, “Just so you remember we have a date after this.” Still smiling she ran off in the direction of the tents, the tablet clutched tight to her chest. The professor was astounded at what she told him, especially the giant stone men. “In all my years in archaeology I have never heard of such a find.” He exclaimed, tears in his eyes, “We can do a full dig here!”
“We can even get the university involved!” said Samantha enthusiastically, but stopped herself when she saw the professor’s face drop.
“Yes, we will have to inform them of this...” with a sudden snap of his fingers he carried on, “And the newspapers! Yes. We can make it public.”

With a sudden laugh he turned to Samantha, “Brilliant idea Sam!” He turned back to Trisha and motioned her to bring the tablet over. He poured over it for an hour and confirmed Conall’s idea that the writing was an old Gaelic form, but it was one he could not decipher. By then it was almost two in the morning and Trisha sent everyone off to bed knowing they would have a busy day tomorrow. “Trish you sleep tomorrow, you need it after today.” said Professor Ashworth as he yawned his way out of the tent, “Sleep! Yes! To sleep, to dream!” and he disappeared into the night. Trisha sagged against the one table completely exhausted. “Here lass, drink this. Ye’re almost done in.” said Conall behind her. She turned and saw that he had two cups of coffee with him, as she took the one from him she smiled a little shyly remembering what she did back by the hole. She took a sip of the coffee and almost choked on it, “What is this?” she said with a laugh. Conall answered “That’s my own recipe made from home brewed beans and my uncle’s whiskey thrown in fer flavour, as he always says ‘Conall ye cannae have tha’ wi’ou some oh me flavouring’” Conall laughed his accent thickening to near unintelligibility as he mimed his uncle’s voice. Trisha laughed with, finished the horribly strong coffee and made a face as the kick almost woke her up. “Off ye go lass, ye need sleep.” Mumbling her good nights Trisha made her way to her tent and promptly fell asleep damp clothes and all; she almost did not take off her thick hiking boots but managed and promptly passed out from the fatigue and overly strong mule kicking coffee.

Golems Prt 3

Part three is up :-)


Golem Story 

Trisha set up a revolving roster for the students to all get a chance at the chamber. But she knew no work could be done until the chamber had been properly lit and that the same rescue team that had checked the room the day before had made sure that it was structurally sound. So they waited, did projections and project scaling... And waited. The professor had become increasingly irritated at the team and their workers. Two days later though the rescue team told them that the chamber was safe enough, but safety was still a top priority as the chamber was still old and they had to be careful. The professor made light of their fears, saying that the chamber had been around for more than a thousand years, and that it was secure. The team leader shook his head and walked back to his vehicle. An hour after the site had been declared safe, the professor and the first team went down into the chamber. A generator provided power to lights set all over the chamber and the archaeologists had torches with them as well. Trisha decided to stay up top for the first day to see that everything went smoothly. Her roster was set up for the next day; she would join the first group down in the early morning. She noticed that the team leader had stayed behind while his team had returned to the city. When she asked him he said "Weeell I want te make sure that this site doesn't degrade, and that you people are safe." 

Slightly surprised at his answer she asked 'Won't you be missed at work?"
"Nah, I said that I suspected this place was nae safe just yet." he said shrugging, "An if something goes wrong, well I can be here te help. Plus I have a few sick days" He made a quick impression on the students, and regaled them with stories and a few Irish songs that night; in the end even the professor agreed that his presence would not be a problem.

The next day Trisha was up early and got her gear ready for her turn to dig. As she came out her tent she saw that Conall, the team leader, was already in the kitchen tent making coffee. He waved at her and finished filling the large urn on the table used for keeping the water warm. Trisha walked towards him as she tied her hair into a pony tail, she saw that he had already taken out everything needed to make the coffee.
“Wow, you have everything ready here. All I need now is room service.”
The young man laughed as he lifted the second urn onto the table with ease “I thought it would be better than layin’ out pints of Guinness.” As he said that he looked at everything on the table and carried on, “I saw yer roster last night on the wall over there an’ thought te myself that I am up early anyway might as well make myself useful.”

He looked back at, smiled and said, “An’ room service only happens on the second date.”

“Well the service here needs to improve first.” she replied with a grin.
“Well we need a first date fer that.” he replied and spun away walking into the kitchen area. Trisha sat down with a slightly puzzled and bemused expression on her face. As he disappeared into the tent itself she undid her pony tail and redid it a little more slowly so that it did not look all ratty.
“So why does everyone on your team call you Con?” she called after him.

“Well me Grandfather gave me the old name of Conall, it’s an old Irish name meanin’ strong or some such...” answered Conall as he returned with two plates from the kitchen, “Here ye are, breakfast fit fer kings.”
In front of her he placed a plate heaped with bacon and eggs, toast, sausages, mushrooms and onions. Trisha looked at the food and said, “Uh... what is all this?”
“This is what we eat before we go out into the field. It’ll give ye the energy ye need.”
Trisha looked at it and then at Conall who ate his food with enthusiasm, she thought it looked better than when one of the students made it, Oh live a little, Trish, it won’t kill you this once, she said to herself and tucked into the breakfast. The two of them swapped a few stories and laughs before the other students came for breakfast. As the rest grabbed food from the kitchen where Conall had made enough to feed a small sized army, Trisha excused herself and went to get the last of her gear. The student aide shook her head and smiled to herself and got ready. Twenty minutes later she descended into the chamber.

“Trish! There’s nothing there!”
“Huh? Oh, sorry... What were you saying Mark?”

“There’s nothing there, we checked yesterday. As far as we can see there’s only rock back there.”
“I feel a breeze here.” Trisha muttered to herself as she played her hand over what had been an archway, but was now filled with stone and rock, “There was, or is, something behind this...”

“We gotta go Trish! Sun’s going to set!” called one of the other students near the ladder and pulley rope leading back up.

“Ok, be there now, let me just get my things!” she called back.

Trisha gathered her tools and played her torch around the room wondering how much they would get out of it, she also wondered what was behind the filled in archway as the other students exited, and before she knew it she was alone in the chamber. By the time she had made her way to the hole she saw that the ladder had been removed. With a shake of her head Trisha berated herself for taking so long, she thought that one of the others had played a nice trick on her. She was about to call out when she heard a voice speaking with an Irish accent. She knew the voice.

“Well anything you find here is to be kept until we can arrange for it to be picked up.”
“Anything here belongs to the University!” replied the now angry voice of Professor Ashworth

“Ah but as the investor of the University, and in particular, the archaeology department I might add.” said the voice, “The investor likes to get his money’s worth.”

Trisha looked up at the hole and saw that the rope was still dangling there. Nothing to it Trish, better get climbing she thought. She grabbed the thick rope and started climbing, good thing I take climbing lessons back home. As she neared the hole, she could hear that the voices were very close by. She slowed her climb and reached the lip of the hole but did not raise herself out. As she hung in the darkness she listened to the argument.

“Just remember Professor. There has been an accident here already; it would be a shame for anything else to happen. So many things can go wrong in these old places.”  

Trisha heard footsteps retreat from the hole; counted to ten and levered herself from the hole. She dusted herself off and saw the professor looking at three men walking off to a waiting car, “Professor?” she asked quietly. Professor Ashworth turned slowly and asked, “I take it you heard that?”

“Yes I was still in the dig and someone took the ladder.”
“That would have been that man and his lackeys. I don’t think they knew you were still in there.” He replied in a wary voice as he looked at the now leaving car, he turned back towards the camp. Trisha half raised her hand to stop him, but let him go. She thought it better to ask him later who the men were. With a thoughtful expression on her face she made her way back to the camp, with a lot on her mind

The next day dawned bright and early with no clouds in sight, it looked good but Trisha could not get the previous day’s events from her mind. She needed to talk to the professor in the afternoon after her shift in the hole. For the most part the day passed by uneventfully, the biggest trouble was when Marten stole the ladder from the hole and Trisha had to climb out again using the rope. She let him know how she felt about that, and Marten nursed his bruised arm the rest of the day; the professor was not seen for the entire day.

The afternoon sun slowly descended when Trisha finally got the time to confront the professor. She made her way towards his tent and stood outside, “Professor? It’s Trisha... We need to talk.”

Quiet, no sound came from the professor’s tent. Trisha turned to go when she heard his voice, “...Come in Trish.”

She parted the tent flaps and saw the professor sitting cross-legged on an old blanket, he motioned for her to join him. She closed the tent flap and shut out the setting sun, “One second.”
The professor lit a small gas lamp and sat back, “I know why you’re here. Those men from yesterday...”

She looked at him, he had not slept and looked worn out, “Well they did say some strange things, professor.”
“There is no easy way to really put it, so I will just say it. Those men work for one of the top business men in Europe. He has been known to have ties to many different ventures, some legal... Some not so legal.”
“So where does he fit in with archaeology>”
“He is one of the main investors in universities the world over, ours as well as the one who let us dig here.”

Trisha ran a hand through her hair and looked at the professor, “So what? How can he just take things from a dig?”

“Apparently he is looking for something. He has funded digs all over Europe, especially ones with a strong Celtic origin.” The professor looked down and rubbed his eyes, “I’m sorry Trish, you were never supposed to get involved in this. I wanted to spare you any dealings with the man and his lackeys.”

As she gazed at the gas lamp she let her mind wander for a moment, “So what is he looking for?”
“No one knows, though whatever it is, it must be ancient by now. So if it is even intact I don’t know.”

“So now what do we do, professor?” Trisha asked looking at the man.

“Keep digging I guess, and...”

The professor’s words were drowned out by a crash of thunder, startling the two. They looked at each other and exclaimed “The dig!”

They ran outside and were met by the full force of a massive thunderstorm already in progress. The other students ran everywhere with all sorts of equipment and items bundled under their arms. Trisha and the Professor ran to the hole and saw that Johnny was already there struggling to pull a tarpaulin over the hole. They moved to help him and managed to get three corners down, though a lot of water had already gone into the hole and was still running into it. Johnny held onto the last corner as it fought his grip. A sudden gust of wind blew the tarpaulin towards the hole. Johnny stumbled; he never felt his footing give way. With a cry lost to the wind he tumbled into the hole, as the water continued to pour in.