"Severna Park - The Three Unknowns" - читать интересную книгу автора (Park Severna)

At the bottom she added, dig deeper.




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Five weeks later, the trenches were two meters deep, and all Althea could see from the window in her
boxcar were the tops of the diggers' heads when they stood up. At one and half meters they'd come to
the lowest point of the foundations. At two, they were in virgin Martian soil. Another week and they
would be chipping ice cubes out of the meager Martian aquifer. Every bucket of dirt was examined with
a fine-toothed comb, but there was nothing new.
Althea stood by the window, watching the afternoon crew. Roger Dodd was back early, in spite of the
fact that there was nothing to report. There he was, posing on the eastern side of the dig, silhouetted
against the crimson horizon, making grand gestures for the camera.

Althea hugged herself in the chilly room. This was the dullest dig she'd ever been on. Even the reply from
Murphy was no help. The DNA was of western European origin, most likely from Normandy. No, there
didn't seem to be any evidence of pilfered human remains in any of the museums in the area. No, he'd
heard no reports of missing bones from any major or minor collection.

His message had been brisk and to the point—so perfunctory that Althea knew Murphy had a pretty
good idea of what was going on at Candor Chasma. She could imagine Murphy laughing at her. She
could imagine the entire department laughing as they watched Roger Dodd reporting live from the Red
Planet.




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Act VI




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It would have been a mistake to try to avoid him, so when Hoshi invited her for a private dinner with
Roger that evening, Althea didn't refuse.
Roger served himself two razor-thin slices of steak-colored protein and a few meager spoonfuls of instant
potatoes. There were fresh frozen peas and even a cheesecake for desert. This was a gourmet
experience for Mars, but Roger only picked at his food.

Hoshi shook a finger at him. "You're insulting our table. Eat, eat." She shoveled peas onto his plate. He
smiled, but he didn't look like he was going to touch them.

"We're shipping out tomorrow," he said. "The network swore they'd have hamburgers and fries waiting
for me on the ship. I'm saving room." He poked the peas with his fork and cocked his head at Althea.