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Maddock and Bones had just finished unloading their equipment when they saw Lina waving as she trotted over to them. Maddock felt a rush of elation on seeing her holding up a piece of paper. She had come through with the permits. She had promised it would be no problem, and Maddock and Bones had acted accordingly, exhaustively preparing and transporting their treasure hunting gear. But as the hours wore on he had become concerned that maybe she was overconfident in her ability to obtain the permit in time.
Lina reached them, beaming as she looked down at the paper. “I told you we had nothing to worry about.”
“Maddock still has that nasty infection to worry about, but penicillin ought to clear it up in a few weeks.”
Lina and Maddock frowned at him and the museum curator went on. “Fortunately, I’ve been working on this application process for some time now, so it all fell into place.”
“What about the museum?” Maddock asked. “I hope we aren’t keeping you from your duties?” He nodded to the paperwork, but Lina shook her head.
“Everything is fine. My friend Bianca is minding the museum. Not that we get many visitors.”
“Bianca...she sounds hot. Got a picture?” Bones asked.
Lina rolled her eyes. “I’ll give you a clue. You know what your American actress Cathy Bates looks like?”
“Yes,” Bones said slowly.
“Bianca looks like the man who played her son in that silly football movie.”
“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”
Lina laughed and rubbed her hands together.” Let’s get on with it, shall we? My permits are solid enough, but there’s no need to attract undue attention. We should get in and get out as soon as possible.”
Bones cracked a wide grin and started to let a joke fly, but Maddock cut him off by pointing out onto the river. “Although the river has been searched many times, those efforts, for the most part, literally scratched the surface.” Lina nodded in agreement and Maddock continued. “I’ve identified two places I think the river might have been most easily diverted, so we might as well start there, using the ground penetrating radar.”
But Lina’s brow was furrowed as she scanned the river from right to left. “I’m worried we might need to build cofferdams to block the water, which we probably won’t be permitted to do. That kind of alteration goes above and beyond what we’re currently permitted for.”
Bones nodded. “It would be nice to have a dry workspace, but the thing is, fresh water is no problem. With saltwater it might be an issue, but this river is fresh water, so we ought to be okay.”
Maddock looked away from the river to Lina and Bones. “Another factor is that soil conditions could limit how far the GPR will penetrate, but there’s really nothing we can do about that.”
Bones turned to Lina and said, “Maddock is always a ray of sunshine, isn’t he?”
She smiled and said, “He’s right, though. We had better get to work.”
The three of them set up the ground penetrating radar unit, which looked to a casual observer like a high-tech lawn mower with an electronic display above the handlebars. After a round of diagnostics and testing to confirm the unit was operating as it should, Bones began wheeling the device over the area.
Lina studied the terrain as she paced alongside Bones with the machine. “Remember, we’re looking for a large, rectangular object.”
“Gee, thanks,” Bones said. “I wasn’t...” He bit off his sarcastic reply after Maddock shot him a look that said, Don’t piss her off, we need her on our side.
Bones continued plying the area alongside the river with the GPR unit, making a U-turn when reaching the end of the likely zone to cover a track parallel to the way he had come. Bones paused a couple of times for an anomalous reading, but quickly ruled them out as false alarms, natural formations that triggered a radar signature that looked like it could be something manmade but wasn’t.
As they worked, a small crowd of curious locals gathered near the shore of the river. One of them cracked a joke about there not being any lawn here to cut, which prompted Lina to explain they were conducting a “simple archaeological survey.” The onlookers soon grew bored and moved on, and then Bones stopped pushing the GPR.
“Your turn mowing this thing, Maddock.” Maddock switched places with Bones and got behind the GPR’s handlebars. He proceeded to wheel the machine over the riverbank, searching for what might lie below.