Forgotten Love: An Action-Packed Adventure Romance (The Forgotten Chronicles) (2 page)

Theo smiled and shook her hand. She had a real strong grip.

"I hear you've got more than a few skills to share," Gillian continued.

Theo shrugged. He was good, and he knew it. He didn't feel the need to brag.

She continued. "So what's the plan here? We're going to dig until we find...what? Dinosaur bones? A Viking ship? What kind of equipment are we bringing? Laser imaging scanners? Micro displacement sensors? Or are you old-school and bringing just a trowel and a feather duster?"

Theo refused to give her the satisfaction of being right about several of those pieces. "You ask a lot of questions, don't you?"

"Hey, asking questions is a good way to find things out." She looked at him with an arched red eyebrow.

Theo blinked at her. "Did you just quote Big Bird?"

"Wisdom comes from the weirdest places. You should hear what I've learned from Dora the Explorer."

Theo didn't know what to make of her. She was pretty. Well, beyond pretty, to be honest. And witty. And if Saul was sending her on this trip he obviously trusted her to do what needed to be done. And come home to him again.

That was a lot of trust between boyfriend and girlfriend. Especially if every other guy around was looking at her the way he was looking at her.

"I assume this thing has passed at least one inspection since 1997?" she asked, taking a step closer to the plane.

"What?" He wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly.

She pointed with one hand. "The plane."

"Oh. Right." He felt foolish. Why was he acting like a teenager? Gillian picked up her bag and climbed the steps into the plane. Theo watched her backside sway tantalizingly until it disappeared into the cabin with the rest of her. His thoughts were wandering to places they really shouldn't be. Theo picked up his own pack and climbed aboard the plane.

* * *

The Cessna was tiny but luxurious. Eight plush leather seats were mounted along a single narrow aisle in sets that faced each other forward and back to facilitate comfort and conversation. Gillian was in the rear of the plane exploring the small, well-stocked galley and bar. Theo sank into a forward facing seat and put his pack down on the seat facing his. The other equipment that he would need for this trip that had been sent on ahead of him and would be waiting for him when he got to Nuuk, the capital city of Greenland.

He had just leaned his head back and was about to close his eyes when something cold and wet touched his neck.

"Cranberry juice?" Gillian held a small bottle in front of his face. "Coffee? Or are you more of a tea drinker?" She grinned.

"Coffee," Theo said.

Gillian sat down in the seat across the aisle next to Theo. "Just push the red button on the machine back there," she said, jerking her head in the direction of the galley. "It does espresso and cappuccino too. There's a toaster and a microwave and a fridge with yogurt and fruit. There are muffins and bagels and some breakfast burritos..." She popped open a container of yogurt, and ate a spoonful. "I wonder why the museum spent so much money on a private plane when there's commercial service." Gillian regarded Theo expectantly while sucking on the spoon.

Theo didn't like to promote his wealth so he avoided the question by getting up to get himself a cup of coffee. He caught just the faintest trace of her perfume as he passed her. It was spicy and subtle, and very feminine. The kind of thing that would keep a guy's attention focused on her and her alone. Theo reminded himself that she was Saul's girlfriend.

He soon found that she didn't need another person's input to carry on a conversation.

"I want to discuss strategy for our little exploration," she said, turning around and kneeling backward in her seat to look at him. "You know, since Greenland has more than eight hundred thousand square miles of land mass..."

The question he kept returning to was, what did she see in Saul? He set the coffee maker to regular and popped a bagel in the toaster. "Um. Well. Our exploration won't be quite that extensive. The ice sheet only covered six hundred and some-odd thousand square miles. That's the only area I'm interested in. That ice sheet's been in place for hundreds and hundreds of years. Long enough that anything that was under it has been forgotten about."

"You know it melted off before, back in the late 1800s, right?"

So she did her homework. "Yeah, Saul mentioned that," he said. "But it's never melted off so completely. Not like this."

Gillian stared at him intently. Her eyes bored into him, looking deeper than his surface. "So are we going to use magnetometers or subsurface imaging equipment? Or are we just going to walk around and hope that we stumble over something?"

The toaster was taking forever. "Of course not."

"Of course not which...?" she prompted.

"Look, I didn't want Saul to send someone with me. I'm used to working alone." Theo fished the bagel out with a fork, dropped it onto a plate and began to dress it with butter and jam. "So, if I seem like I'm cutting you out or ignoring you, don't take it personally."

"Well, I'm here, so I guess you're going to have to deal with it," she said dryly. " You may as well tell me what your plan is."

Gillian had a directness that was almost charming. Theo returned to his seat just as the pilot turned around to say, "Fasten your seatbelts. We have clearance from the tower and we're ready to roll. We have clear skies between here and the Nuuk Airport in Greenland so we can expect a smooth flight. Our flight time today will be three hours and fifty-two minutes."

Theo buckled himself in and asked Gillian, "Do you know what a moulin is?"

"I know what the Moulin Rouge is," she said, fastening her own seat buckle.

He had to smile. "All right. Here's the short version of the history of the Greenland ice sheet."

"Oooh, a lecture from a real Professor..." Gillian teased.

"How did you know I was a professor?"

She blinked, and then laughed, settling back in her chair in a way that emphasized her breasts straining against her black sweater. "I was joking! You're really a professor? And an archeologist? Seriously? A real-life Indiana Jones. How in God's name did you convince Saul to fund this little trip of yours?"

"People trust me. I have a trusting face."

"No you don't. You have a face that could model for GQ, but I wouldn't call it trusting."

Theo thought he actually might be blushing. But Gillian wasn't flirting with him, he realized. Not exactly, anyway. She just said whatever popped into her head at the moment. "So, what? You're saying you wouldn't trust me?"

"I trust you about as far as I could throw you," she replied with a grin.

Theo liked the sound of that. To get his thoughts away from where they were headed, he went back to explaining his plans for when they reached Greenland. "The moulins are long, tubular tunnels that run down the inside of the ice sheet, letting melting water flow off the surface of the ice and down to the bedrock underneath. When the ice sheet melts every summer, the run off flows down these passageways and disappears. No one really understands how the tubes formed or where they go."

"I've heard of those, they're like natural drainpipes, letting the water flow away under the ice. But don't they only run down the insides of the glaciers?"

He shook his head. "Not always. Sometimes a moulin exists in one spot for so long that the running water actually carves a tunnel down into the rock below the surface."

"And now that parts of the ice sheet has mysteriously melted away in a matter of days..."

"Exactly," Theo confirmed. "The moulin tunnels in the bedrock will be exposed and we can explore them easily."

"Easily is a relative term," Gillian replied as the plane began to roll down the runway. "I thought this was going to be an above-ground expedition."

"What's the matter? I thought you were up for adventure."

"I'm not a huge fan of caving."

"Don't like the idea of going deeper and deeper into an ever-narrowing tunnel with the weight of tons of rock over your head and God only knows what kind of creature lurking around the next curve that might be supremely pissed off when you shine a bright light in its eyes for the first time?"

Gillian glared at him. "Something like that, yeah."

"I can ask the pilot to turn around and call you a cab..." Theo offered.

"I'll deal with it," Gillian said.

"Suit yourself." Theo settled back more in his seat, closing his eyes. Maybe he'd managed to shut her up for a while. He was looking forward to a few hours of peaceful rest before the plane landed at Nuuk and the real work—

"So how did you get into this line of work?" Gillian asked, jolting him awake from the near recesses of sleep.

He opened one eye a crack to look at her. "By accident, actually. I was a grad student on a field trip to the pyramids in Egypt. I managed to stumble onto a secret door no one had found before."

"I remember hearing about that," she said, some excitement in her voice as she sat up straighter. "That was you?"

He shrugged. "Yes."

"And they still don't know what's behind it?"

"Nope." Closing his eyes again he thought about all the things they'd need to do once they reached Greenland. He had his contact lined up and supplies were supposed to be waiting for—

"How long have you been doing this?"

"Long enough," he replied.

"I mean, how many times have you been out in the field? And down in a cave?"

"Enough times to know what I'm doing. Enough times to not be freaked out about it. I'm not an amateur."

"I'm not freaked out and I'm not an amateur. I've been out in the field a few times over the past two years myself. Didn't Saul tell you about Istanbul?"

"No," Theo said, not the least interested in Istanbul. "No, he didn't."

He could feel her eyes boring into him. She really wanted him to ask. He really didn't want to ask. He just wanted to get some rest while he could because he knew once they hit the ground there was a lot they were going to have to—

"Well, first of all, we ran into problems with security before we even got out of the airport. They were suspicious of the night-vision equipment and the radiation detectors and..."

He clenched his teeth tighter. This was going to be a long, long flight.

Chapter 3

THE LANDING IN
Greenland was a touchy affair. Mostly because the air traffic controllers in Nuuk were frazzled from the dramatic increase in planes they had to route to their single runway. With the worldwide interest in the dramatic loss of the ice sheet, every amateur treasure seeker, geologist, archeologist, scientist, news media outlet and looky-loo were coming to Greenland. Theo recognized a fair number of them and tried to keep his head down to avoid being recognized and forced to go through faked pleasantries and the inevitable questioning of methodologies.

"Well, professor, it looks like everyone has the same idea as you." Gillian remarked, looking around at the swarming mass of people milling about the small airport building.

"I don't think so," Theo located the exit and began to move toward it.

"These folks are pretty geared up," Gillian said. "I don't think they're here for a scrap-booking conference."

"What I mean," he explained to her in a low voice as he began threading his way through the crowd, "is that I doubt any of these people are here to do exactly what we are. This idea is unique. Those moulin shafts are only thought to be just so deep, and to only exist to funnel away melt-off from the ice sheet. Who would think to go exploring in them?"

"Crazy people."

"Crazy people, and us."

A voice stopped Theo dead in his tracks. "Cutro! You crazy son-of-a-bitch! I knew you'd be here!"

Theo muttered, "Fuck!" under his breath and turned in the direction of the voice with a huge fake smile. "Waterson and Ives! I thought you'd both still be that Guatemalan jail."

The men he addressed were both tall and rangy, one with long dark hair and one with long light hair. They were young but both had seen a lot of mileage. The dark one was missing a couple of fingers on one hand and the light one had a 4 inch scar that ran diagonally from the center of his forehead to just below his left eye.

It was the light haired one who spoke first, "We got out, no thanks to you."

"It wasn't me who got you in there, Frank..." Theo reminded him.

"You could have done something."

"I did," said Theo.

The blond man took a step forward. He was at least 5 inches taller than Theo. "Something besides running like a pussy."

Theo stood his ground. "It was your pre-occupation with pussy that got you into trouble," he said.

The dark haired man stepped between them and eyed Gillian. "Speaking of pussy, who's this?" he asked with a grin.

"My research assistant," Theo said.

"Research
partner
," Gillian corrected. "I'm Gillian Langtree. And you two gentlemen are...?"

Theo steered her away from them. "A couple of guys we don't need to worry about," he said as they walked away.

"I'll tell you who you do need to worry about," the dark haired guy called after them. "George Dingo is here!"

"George Dingo?" Gillian asked.

"Nothing to worry about," Theo said.

"That's his real name?"

He declined to answer and concentrated on getting the hell out of this airport before running into anyone else—they almost made it. Outside of the terminal building Theo was looking for the transportation that was supposed to be waiting for them, when a jovial, smartly dressed man in his mid to late fifties approached them.

"Theo Cutro. What brings you to this part of the world?"

Theo spotted his ride—an older white Chevy Kodiak that had pulled up to the far end of the paved surface. They began to move quickly toward it. "I heard there was a scrap-booking convention in town, Dingo. What brings you here?"

"You know I've always loved scrap-booking," said the man following them.

Gillian turned to speak to him but Theo took her arm and pulled her along, whispering, "Don't talk to him. Don't even make eye-contact..." They reached the pickup and Theo tossed their bags into the truck bed then opened the door, ushering Gillian inside and crowding her over on the bench seat. "You know I'd love to stay and catch up, Dingo..."