The Lost Libraries Archive (The Erik Midgard Case Files Volume 2)

Chapter 6

VI

"Oh, gentle Darwin!" said Dr. Anthony Hades, looking down at the body. He looked up at Mirabi. "I'm sorry. I know you told me, but... Somehow, I was hoping it wouldn't be true."

            Mirabi had returned from Earth with Hades a few minutes ago. The latest doctor was a short, slim man in his mid-thirties, with grey eyes and short dark hair curling on the top of his head. He'd come not just straight from Earth, but straight from the archaeological excavation he was conducting in present day Yucatan and still had mud and dust on his boots and was wearing a sunhat, which he had taken off as soon as he saw the Professor's body.

            "I'm afraid it is," said Mirabi. "Do you have any idea who might have done it?"

            "What? Oh, no. No. None at all," said Dr. Anthony Hades, looking between me and Mirabi. He'd seemed unusually nervous from the minute he'd arrived here and I made a mental note – even if he wasn't involved in the murder – to do a background check and see if he was involved in anything he shouldn't be. "I've been at the dig all day. I'm sleeping down there at the moment. I haven't been since here last week."

            "We did invite you to the party, Tony," said Zeus.

            "Yes, but you're not having it now, surely?"

            "Do you recognise the murder weapon, Doctor?" I said. "Is it anything you've found on your... dig?"

            I was trying to remember what the terminology was because – while I came across all sorts of people in my career as a ChronOps officer – Hades was the first professional archaeologist I'd met. His field was one of the numerous branches of historical study that was slowly being killed off by licensed academic time travel and would probably be an entry in history books itself – or the subject of one of Zeus's documentaries – in a hundred years.

            "Oh, no. Good grief, no. I haven't seen anything like it," said Hades. He paused, then leaned down so he could peer at the knife more closely. "It's certainly Mayan, but... No. It looks undamaged. It's far too clean."

            "Really?" said Ishtar, looking at the blood-congealed blade again. I had allowed him to come back into the Yucatan room with us because – despite his ill-conceived attempt at temporal cheating – he was still a witness if not a suspect. He might yet possess useful information without realising it.

            "I meant it hasn't been in the ground," said Hades. "There'd be stains. Debris trapped in the crevices. It can't have been buried. The mosaic work looks almost brand new. It's a beautiful piece, actually."

            "So it's nothing you've dug up?" said Mirabi.

            "No," said Hades, shaking his head. Then he stopped suddenly, in mid-shake. His mouth half-formed something and his eyes narrowed.