Ariane ran her hand over her sweaty face, adding another layer of dirt. Standing up, she ignored the pain in her back. In five years of archaeology, one learned to cope with the stiff muscles or found a new career. Footsteps behind her made her turn.
"Ari, we've got a problem." Dena, her assistant, didn't look happy.
"What now?" Ariane hoped it wasn't another ill worker.
"Your sister."
"What's she doing now?" Ariane growled.
"Distracting the workers. Short shorts, hanging around, flirting . . .the workers can't get anything done 'cause they're gawking at her."
"Dammit!" Ariane climbed out of the hole, wiping her hands off on faded cutoffs. "I'm gonna kill her. I'm gonna ship her scrawny, teenage butt right back to Mom and Dad!"
"She's in the trailer. Said from noon till 6 she couldn't be in the sun because it's too hot for her 'delicate skin'." Dena chuckled.
Ariane's answer was a snarl.
"Courtney!"
Throwing open the trailer door, Ariane stormed in. Dena waited patiently outside, making sure the door was closed. The workers had seen their boss lose her temper daily with the younger girl, this was just another round.
The seventeen year old was stretched out on the couch, reading, wearing a red bikini top and incredibly short shorts. Her long legs took up most of the couch's length.
"Hey, sis." Courtney didn't look up from her book.
"I heard you've been hanging around the crew again."
"So? I make their life interesting." Court tossed her dark blonde hair back.
"What did I tell you before? It's hard enough to get their respect because I'm a woman! With you prancing around trying to get their attention, they only think of me as a joke and you a whore."
"I am not a whore!!" Courtney sat up, indignant.
"They think you are! This is Greece, you twit, things are different here!"
"Yeah, they are, and they suck!" Courtney yelled back, getting up from the couch. "I should be traveling around Europe with Mom and Dad!"
"It's your own damn fault that you're here! If you had bothered to pay attention and study in school, I wouldn't be punished by you being here! I don't know how I got roped into this anyway!" Ariane yelled back.
"Because you're the responsible one! You're the golden child! You have to be Miss Perfect and I can't live up to that!" Courtney yelled. Ariane stared at her younger sister.
"What the hell are you talking about? I have worked my ass off to be where I am! You have no idea what I went through to get it! You were too young!"
"Yeah, and no one talks about it! I know you're all hiding shit from me. You, Mom, Dad ‑ all of you! Protecting me! Trying to protect me from what?"
"Let it go, Court," Ariane warned. Courtney advanced on her taller sister.
"No, I won't!"
>"Court, you're a genius. You were a freshman in college at sixteen! Now you're in trouble in school. What the hell happened? Boredom? Boys?" "You're not changing the subject." Court's green eyes glared at her older sister.
"Fine. But this discussion is over. I have to go back out there. I want you to stay inside for the rest of the day."
"Or what? There's not even a tv out here!" Court whined.
"Court, please, bear with me," Ariane pleaded. "As soon as we make some progress I'll take you to Athens . . . you'll love it . . . but I need to finish this."
"You've been here for two years! Why isn't it finished?"
Ariane sighed and left the trailer, slamming the door behind her.
"Sounded like World War Three in there," Dena remarked, walking with her old friend.
"She wants answers that I can't give."
"Can't or won't?" Dena asked. Ariane stopped and turned to her friend.
"Don't go there, Dena."
"Well shit, Ari! We went through school together. I know damn good and well what happened! Why can't she know?"
"I don't want her or anyone else's pity."
"I don't see as to where that would be the case."
"New subject, please."
"Our investors are losing faith rapidly."
Ariane looked up at the scorching sun. Fifteen straight days in 100 plus temperatures. No sign of rain. The workers were discouraged, and at least a third had heat sickness. The water supply was dangerously low. Bathing was to a bare minimum, with the exception of Courtney's youthful vanity. Ariane turned to Dena.
"This will work. I will make this work. We will find something."
"Ari, listen to me." Dena's dark eyes beseeched her friend's blue ones. "You knew going into this that it was a long shot. A temple of Artemis . . . thousands of years old . . . what are the chances?"
"It's here," Ariane said through clenched teeth. "I can feel it."
"Look I know you believe in the ancient gods and all . . . but . . ."
"Dena, if I lose faith, everyone will. I will not fail again."
"You didn't fail the first time," Dena snapped. "No one thinks that you did."
Ariane stared at her friend, then turned on her heel and walked away.
***
Court pulled the trunk out from under her sister's bed.
It would be hours before Ariane returned. She worked from dawn til midnight, sleeping only the minimum her body required. Rarely seeing her sister eat, Courtney wondered how her sister wasn't skin and bones, and remained a lush beauty, even in the blistering sun and heat all day. The ready smile Ariane was once known for her hadn't appeared in years. Her skin was dark and golden from two years in the Greek desert, the blonde hair streaked with gold, and more muscular than most of the guys Court had known at college.
Knowing little about her sister, Court was curious to go through the locked trunk. Having spotted it several weeks ago, she waited to build up the courage to look through it.
With nine years between them, Courtney was eleven when something happened to Ariane. All she knew was that her parents had been upset, a man was involved, and Ariane was never the same again. It had to be something terrible, or else why would the family be so secretive about it?
Having retrieved a pin from her makeup bag, Court wiggled it gently in the lock, grinning when she felt it release. Years of sneaking through her parents' safes, liquor cabinet and hidden boxes had served her well in the art of lock picking.
Listening carefully for her sister's voice or steps, Court decided the situation was secure.
When the trunk lid was opened, Court frowned. It was a bunch of books. Books? Her sister kept books locked away? Only Ariane would do something so strange. Of course the daily logs were in here, the trunk was fire proof for safety . . . surely these couldn't all be related to the dig.
Lifting out the top two layers of books, Court saw it. A dusty, old shoe box. Removing the lid, she found a pile of pictures. In them, Ariane looked to be about twenty . . . that would be right for when she was in college . . . she was twenty‑six now . . . who was the gorgeous blonde man with her?
Taller than her five foot eleven sister, short, platinum blonde hair, the sweetest smile she had ever seen. Ariane was smiling happy, the man's arm around her. An old boyfriend maybe? To her knowledge Ariane had never dated much, even in college. Always busy with her studies, Ariane
lacked horribly in people skills. Dena did the verbal proposals to the investors for that very reason. They were a team. For all Courtney knew, her sister didn't even like men.
The next picture was her sister again, the blond man, and what appeared to be his twin brother. Twins? Courtney hadn't known such beautiful men existed. Ariane must have dated one of them . . . the sweetly smiling one . . . he had his arm around her in all of these. Dena was in some of the pictures. Court knew the girls had gone through school together; had Dena dated the other brother? The pictures didn't say. Hmm . . . maybe Dena had the answers she wanted. No, Ari had probably told her to keep quiet, too.
Turning over the pictures, Courtney finally found the information she wanted. Aric and Quinn Wolfe. Ariane's senior year of archaeology school. In the picture the twins were sitting on a lawn, guitars in hand, singing. Ariane wasn't in the picture . . . had she taken it?
Hearing her sister outside, Court crammed the books back in and slammed the trunk shut. Scrambling up, she kicked the trunk under the bed and made it back to hers. Rolling over, she pretended to be asleep. Ariane stomped inside, headed to fridge and grabbed another water bottle.
"Court."
Court rolled over to face her sister.
"What?"
"Dena got this for you. It's as close to tv as you'll get." Ariane tossed a package to her sister.
Opening it, Court found a portable video game player. Sighing, Court turned it on. It was better than nothing. Court wished her sister would hurry up and find the damn temple soon. She wanted out of the desert.
***
"I don't know what I'm going to do with that kid. I can't believe I let Mother talk me into this." Ariane sat on a large rock, watching the gold streaks of fading sunlight shoot across the sky. Dena joined her.
"What'd she do anyway?"
"I don't know. Something with the school. Slacking off, etc. I think she's on academic probation. Mother didn't get specific, just managed to convince me to babysit her for the summer. Mother thought it would be good for her . . . build character or something stupid like that."
Dena lit a cigarette, offering it to her friend. Ariane shook her head.
"You know I quit. That shit'll kill you."
"And downing a fifth of scotch every night won't kill you?" Dena grinned. Ariane gave half a smile, her blue eyes staring out at her working crew.
Blistering heat was still strong, even at six in the evening. After the crew retired at dark, Ariane often worked alone, digging through the hard ground. If the money ran out, she would be left with two options. Invest her trust fund, which would be eaten up quickly, or suffer the defeat and embarrassment of failing again. Someone else might be brought in, and Ariane would lose every ounce of respect she had with her colleagues, which wasn't much to begin with, for the simple fact she was a woman.
"What?" Ariane asked.
"Come on man, I've seen that stash in your trailer."
"It's not serious. It helps me sleep sometimes. I just like it occasionally."
"Sure." Dena let the subject drop. Ariane was in one of her moods again.
"I'm going to go check on the workers." Ariane got up abruptly and headed towards the main dig site.
*** Courtney read through the yearbook. In some other language, she'd guess Sanskrit or one of those funky old languages, was a long passage from an 'Aric'. Was it the gorgeous, blonde Aric from the picture? Unusual spelling for the name, it had to be. There were several passages in handwriting so bad she couldn't read them. One signature looked like it could be Quinn.
In the front of the yearbook was a picture of the school, the address, phone number and fax number. Ariane would kill her for a phone call, but a fax could be done easily, much faster, so it would be cheaper. . . Court copied the number down and returned everything to the trunk, locked it, and pushed it back under the bed.
Writing out an inquiry, she dialed the school's fax number . . . she'd track down Aric Wolfe, get him to Greece, and keep her sister busy so she could have some fun. Ariane would be thrilled to see him. From the pictures she had seen, they were completely in love with one another. What had gone wrong?
***
Within an hour Courtney had her answer.
Aric and Quinn Wolfe were a highly respected brother team of archaeologists, credited with discoveries around the world, including dinosaur bones in South America and Africa. Aric was also the recipient of some big award from the school. Currently they were living in Texas, taking a break from a long, recent project.
Courtney told the Dean she was looking to track down some of her old college friends and gave a list of names. The Dean had sent information on all those requested, except for her sister's name. Graduated at number one of her class, valedictorian, etc etc. Golden girl all the way around. The Dean only knew Ariane was somewhere in Greece. But the Dean had included phone numbers for most of the people, including the brothers, and their email addresses. For Ariane, he replied it was difficult to locate her, she seemed to have vanished into the Greek desert.
Now, how would she bring them here? Court wondered.
***
"Ariane!" Dena yelled. Ariane looked up from where she knelt in the large hole. The crew had found something and she was brushing the loose dirt away.
"Fax just came in!" Dena yelled. Ariane frowned and stood up. Dena sounded upset. Dena leaned into the hole and handed her the paper. "The investors. They're sending in someone else to help."
“What?" Ariane demanded. "But this is my project! Who is it?"
"I don't know. It doesn't say."
Ariane read the fax. Some of the investors were getting antsy. They were sending in someone very "successful" to help.
"Help, my ass! They'll take over! I bet it's Farbes, too! That son of a bitch would sleep with a mummy if he thought it would tell him how to cheat!"
Dena was prepared for her friend's temper, but the workers weren't.
"I will not allow someone else to come in! No! This is my project!" Ariane started to climb up. "I'm going to call them ‑ I want a real reason ‑ I won't stand for this ‑" she headed for the trailer.
Hearing the door slam, Courtney looked up from her video player.
"Who peed in your cornflakes?"
"Those damn investors . . . they want to send in someone else ‑ someone more 'successful'. What they mean is Farbes!"
"Who's Farbes?" Court asked, alarmed. She had all but requested the twin brothers.
"A sneaky, lying son of a bitch who steals other people's work and discoveries! He nailed a colleague of mine last year in Africa . . . I will not have him messing up my project!"
Ariane snatched the phone and dialed the number in London. Court slipped outside.
Surely they would send the twins . . . she had laid the groundwork . . they couldn't send someone else. A horrible thought came to her. What if the twins refused??
Ariane came flying out of the trailer.
"Those fuckers!" she yelled. Court flinched.
"What happened?"
"I got their office and Thomkins is out of town!!! How can he do this to me!!!" she yelled. Turning, she kicked the trailer.
"Uh, Ariane . . . the crew is staring . . ." Court told her.
"Let them! In a couple of days they won't be mine any more!"
"Ari, calm down!"
"I'll kill them!"
Dena smacked her friend across the face. Stunned, Ariane stopped her rant.
"You ninny! Stop your tantrum. You're above this."
Ariane swallowed.
“Yeah, I guess. This project though . . ."
"Come on. Inside."
* * *
"Someone must have called them and told them I'm failing," Ariane mused. Court felt uncomfortable. Ariane was close to tears.
"I doubt it. You know how these people are, Ari. They want immediate results. They don't have a damn clue as to how these things work. I'll go talk to the crew and tell them what's happening. They probably think we're being shut down."
"We might as well be," Ariane said bitterly. "They'll more than likely bring in their own crew. A hundred people out of a job."
Court followed Dena outside. Once they were gone, Ariane found her open bottle of scotch. Pouring a double shot, she swallowed it, grimacing at the fire that raced through her chest.
Opening her locked trunk, she dug to the very bottom of it, ignoring a shoebox full of old pictures. In the corner, she found the black velvet box. Opening it, her gold necklace of Artemis gleamed up at her. Though it had been a gift from him, it had always brought her luck. Maybe now she needed to wear it again. Slipping it over her head, the gold charm was cool against her neck.
“Give me strength, Artemis," she whispered, returning to the table, her fingers caressing the tiny statue of the goddess.
Taking a deep breath, she poured another double shot and downed it. There would be no failure. Not again. She'd die first.
* * *
The crew worked harder, hoping the new people wouldn't fire them and bring in a new group. Work hours were extended, Dena and Ariane working alongside of them. What Ariane had hoped for as a part of the temple turned out to be nothing but a chunk of rock. Ariane worked later, past midnight, searching, and was up before dawn. The crew struggled to keep up with her.
By the week's end, they saw the RVs coming in.
As they approached, the crew slowed down working and stared. Ariane heard the silence fall and knew what was happening. Waiting until the engines were turned off, she finally climbed out of the hole, and was joined by Dena and Courtney. Court hadn't meant for her sister to be so upset. Once she saw the twins, if it was them, she would probably thank her later.
Ariane grabbed a cigarette from Dena and lit it to calm her nerves, forcing herself not to choke on the foul smoke and taste. Farbes could be handled. The instant he was out of the RV she would tell him how things were going to go. He could sit in the trailer all damn day, but he would not fire her people and he would not interfere with her plans and crew.
Ariane held her head high as she and Dena walked forward. They would not defeat her.
The door opened and a man stepped out. Ariane froze in her tracks. Dena gasped. Aric Wolfe stepped out of the RV, followed by his twin brother, Quinn. The twins faced them calmly.
"Hello Ariane, Dena," Aric greeted her. Dena barely caught her friend as Ariane crumpled to the sand in shock.