the rocks was carved a tomb of immense antiquity, partially exposed by tools wielded in someone’s patient grasp, and in the tomb were bones. There was no question as to the age of the sediment in which they lay, the levels of strata as ancient as the hills where time had forged them.
The remains bore testimony to an enormously powerful creature, the internment a cavity over eight feet long. The bones were huge, bearing the depressions of tissue anchoring points that suggested immense musculature. Broad hands were clasped neatly across a vast chest, long legs crossed at the ankle. The body was flat and level, perfectly supported within the sediment in which it had been interred.
“Purposefully buried,” Sheviz said in wonder, kneeling before the excavation.
“How old is it, sadiqi?” Ahmed asked the professor.
“Not less than seven thousand years. It’s quite possibly—”
The sound of boots crunched on the parched earth behind Ahmed and he whirled, swinging his rifle up to aim at the figure striding purposefully into the clearing. In the glow of the camp lights a tall blond woman dressed in khaki shorts, T-shirt, and bush hat came to an abrupt halt.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Sheviz stood and pulled his jacket neatly into place as Ahmed lowered the rifle.
“I might ask you the same question, Lucy.”
Dr. Lucy Morgan placed her balled fists on her hips. “Overtime. Who are you?”
“Dr. Damon Sheviz. The university has demanded the return of this equipment,” he announced, “and your return to Jerusalem immediately.”
“This equipment is on loan to my survey team.”
“Indeed it is,” Sheviz said as he took a pace toward her. “And that survey was completed two days ago in Be’er Sheva. I was on the verge of reporting you missing to the authorities and the equipment stolen.”
Lucy shrugged. “They don’t need any of this right now, anyway.”
“And what are you doing with it, Dr. Morgan? You realize that this is theft, do you not? The university does not condone the use of its resources for personal projects.”
“Perhaps they would if they knew anything about this,” Lucy snapped, and then glanced at the remains nearby.
Ahmed watched Sheviz falter, following her gaze. The fastidious little man straightened his tie absentmindedly and cleared his throat.
“How long ago did you find it?”
“Three days ago. I’ve been back whenever I’ve had a chance.”
Sheviz’s voice edged a tense octave higher. “Have you classified it?”
Lucy gestured across the camp to her laptop. Sheviz leaped across to the device with the speed of a man half his age. The computer hummed into life, the blue screen lighting his features.
Ahmed, bemused, moved to stand behind him.
“Good God,” Sheviz uttered, reading from the screen. “Remains located south of Zin, Israel. Previous carbon-fourteen dating suggests specimen died approximately seven thousand years ago, confirmed by obsidian hydrationrim dating of accompanying detritus within strata.”
Lucy joined them as Sheviz went on with increasing excitement.
“Subject cranium fully intact. Postcranial structure present with mild erosive damage concurrent with recent exposure.”
Ahmed looked at the bones, confused now by the unfamiliar terminology and the doctor’s excitement. “What’s so special about it?”
A ghost of a smile touched Lucy’s lips. “It’s not human.”
Ahmed Khan struggled to understand what Lucy Morgan had said.
“The remains are completely unmineralized,” Sheviz gasped before Ahmed could speak. “They are not comparable to any known variant of Homo sapiens. Awaiting analysis from Field Museum, Chicago.”
Ahmed shot a questioning glance at Lucy. “How can it not be human?”
“Look at the chest structure, the cranium, the fused sternum.”
Ahmed looked again at the remains and a tingling sensation rippled through his nerves. The skull cap was elongated as though stretched to double the height of a human cranium, the eye sockets were cavernous and shaped like giant teardrops, and the vast plain of the chest was a sheet of fused bone, only the base of the ribs visible, protruding from the spinal column still buried in the rocks.
“Cranial capacity, three thousand cubic centimeters,” Sheviz whispered, shaking his head. “A bigger brain than ours.”
Homo sapiens—modern man—had been believed for millennia to be the only intelligent species of life in the universe. Now, Lucy’s discovery had extinguished that fallacy as brutally and instantly as man’s first fires had banished the darkness and the beasts of the night. Here were the remains of an unknown species, immensely powerful in stature and yet seven thousand years old. Bigger. Stronger. Smarter.
“In the name of Allah, what is it then?” Ahmed asked.
“We don’t know yet,” Lucy said. “We need the measurements I’ve made to be