She glimpsed something in the shadows beyond the console. “Point the light over there.”
He did as she asked, moving in close to her. She leaned over his shoulder. It would be far too easy to get used to the warm strength of him.
“Another body,” he said.
Just a black pair of boots were visible, the rest of the body covered in sand and partly hidden by the remnants of the computer system. They worked together to dig away the sand, finding an efficient rhythm, and soon had the body uncovered.
“Male. Hard to tell exact age but he had to be in his prime.” She swept sand off the man’s navy-blue clothes. “He’s wearing some sort of uniform.”
Dathan leaned over, brushing more red sand away. “Dr. Rai, I think you have your proof.”
Her gaze was drawn to what was left of the mummy’s bright red hair, then back to the logo on the mummy’s chest, peeking through the sand.
“Suva’s grace.” Her hand shook as she swiped the remaining sand off. Gently, she touched the logo—an entwined S and E circled by a trail of stars.
Dathan grinned. “Welcome to Star’s End, Doc.”
Dathan lovedthe thrill of discovery.
But with Eos beside him, it felt even better.
He helped her clear away the last of the sand from the mummy. She was trying to contain her excitement but was failing.
He watched her take in every view of the logo and smiled. God, he just loved watching her in astro-archeologist mode.
“There’s no official record of what the logo looked like. Just the sketch I found in that journal.” She ran a fingernail over thecircle of stars around the letters, starting out large and getting smaller.
“Looks like a match to me.”
She straightened. Her smile galaxy-wide. “We found Star’s End.” She leaped at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “We did it.”
With a laugh, he gave her a smacking kiss. “Congratulations. You’ll go down in galactic history. Those snobs at the Institute will trip over themselves to give you a cushy promotion.”
Her smile dimmed. “Yes. I’m sure they will.”
The thought of her light years away hit him in the chest. He set her down. “Now we need to find the treasure.”
“That’s why we’re here.”
“Z’s been working on a way to detect the poplar wood theMona Lisais painted on.”
“That’s a brilliant idea,” she said.
He shrugged. “We still need to get close. If the treasure’s locked in a vault or buried, it’ll be a challenge.”
The Sync in Dathan’s pocket crackled to life. “Dath? You copy?”
He lifted the device. “We have confirmation! Thanks to that damn sand monster, we found Star’s End.”
Zayn’s whoop came through clearly, followed by a barrage of questions from Niklas.
“Look, we’ll head back shortly, and you and Eos can talk until your jaws are sore.” He angled the Sync and snapped a picture of the mummy and the logo. “Sending you an image right now.”
“Received,” Nik said. “That’s incredible, but it’ll have to wait. You guys need to head back now. That’s why we called. Z’s picked up bad weather coming in from the east.”
Dathan frowned. “Storm?”
“Looks like a sandstorm. A bad one.”
