Race among the Ruins

"Absolutely not," she said. "I'd rather make history with you." Then she realized what she'd said as one of his eyebrows arched and he looked at her.

"Okay, you're my new researcher. Make a list of everything you'll need. I'll go and see how much it's going to cost to charter us a boat. You can start doing your research anytime you want," he said.

"Well shouldn't we wait for them to get done and confer with..." before she had even finished her thought, he turned towards her faster than she'd have imagined possible.

"Maria, from this moment on we're on our own. I will no longer work with my former partner ever," he said. "I will also no longer have anything to do with my former wife. I wish them well, but this is no longer about them, it's about moving forward. If you'd like to work with them, I'll write you a nice letter recommending your services but that's all I can do for you."

"Nope, I'm fine with you," she said realizing she'd done it again. "It's just that I've never actually researched a project before. Actually I've never been on a field exploration at all. I've taught lots of classes, but that's all."

"Don't worry about it," said Aaron. "Half of the time, Robert's research only got us in the ball park anyway. He only served to narrow down the entire planet to a specific area and sometimes not even that. Of course, he did give us a great idea of what we'd find but in this case it's really not about what we find is it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Maria.

"We aren't going out to look for a specific type of item," he said. "And let's face it we're in Greece, we're going to find Greek and possibly Roman items. We already know that. We also know that the University will pay for the team that finds something. That team will also get the contract with the University for future exploration. That's what I'm interested in. If you want the professorship and we're successful, I'll do my best to help you get it. But this isn't really like normal field work, this is basically a race.

There are a bunch of different archaeological exploration teams racing through the ruins of Ancient Greece. To the winner goes the spoils and we're going to win." As he said this his smile lit up his face. Maria found herself wanting to believe, but she was sure that Dr. Thompson and Dr. Anderson would be doing far more thorough research than she was capable of and they had at least a three day head start.

"Okay partner, get busy," he said. "Dig up any specifics you can and get a few friends who are willing to help us. They'll be paid of course, plus they'll have the experience to put on their resumes." He handed her a card with his cell phone number on it. "Call me if anything comes up. If not, I'll meet you back at the Hang Dog this evening." He drove off leaving her in front of the hotel where she'd first found him.

Maria nodded her head and headed back towards her friend's car. She was sure that Dana, the girl who owned the car, would want to help and she knew a couple of her class mates who'd kill for the chance. She also had to call Elena to keep her in the loop as to what was going on.

Aaron drove down towards the docks. He spent some time talking to some of the people he'd met and hung out with during the week. Within a couple of hours he had a crew and a boat that would be great for his purposes. He had the owner of the boat write out an estimate of the costs to charter the boat for a week. Aaron was going out stripped this time. He was not going to hire a huge comfortable research vessel with large staterooms and personal amenities. That was the way that Robert always liked to go. Aaron's boat would be equipped for two things exploration and speed.

The boat would have a few computers and scanning equipment for underwater viewing and subsurface radar. Aaron wanted to be able to thoroughly search any area he chose. He wouldn't skimp on equipment, but other than equipment he needed to find the fastest boat he could. No extra weight for leather couches or fancy woodwork. No movie screens and plasma televisions. No bathtubs, refrigerators or convection ovens.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the phone. He'd made several phone calls back to the states to speak to his lawyer and had several processes going at the same time. Stacy had called him several times but he hadn't returned any of her messages. He'd really meant what he'd told Maria about how he wished his soon to be ex wife well, but he had nothing to say to her or Robert.

Stacy turned the shower on and stepped inside it. Her life over the past few days had gone to hell. She hadn't heard from her husband since the night of the gala. Somehow her idea to become a partner in her husband's career had backfired big time. She had to go along with whatever Robert wanted because he was her only friend here and also her only chance to salvage any of this fiasco.

She couldn't believe that she'd had sex with him. It had been awful. It actually wasn't awful, it was worse than awful. It had been nothing. Robert had just humped away at her, while she felt nothing. Part of it was the simple fact that Robert was nowhere near Aaron's physical size. Then there was the fact that Aaron had spent the last 9 years learning what she liked, so he knew just what to do to make her enjoy it. Robert on the other didn't seem to care whether or not she got anything out of it. Afterwards she'd just stayed there lying down on the bed feeling like the whore her husband had said she was. Was advancing her career worth this humiliation?

Anyway, they were only a day away from the deadline for turning in their bids and proposals. Robert hadn't known what to look for in the boat because that was Aaron's area. They also hadn't been able to get any recommendations about their crew. They'd ended up hiring a captain who brought his own guys with him. Robert had been able to get a few University students to help with the diving but none of them had very much experience. Robert could dive but he wasn't very good at it. He'd have to this time though, to make sure that they weren't taken advantage of or cheated. Both of them were hoping that Aaron would show up.

Robert had done a very good job researching the area and he thought that he had a few insights that no one else had. This whole situation had simply brought home exactly how much of a partnership they'd really had. They were stuck with inexperienced divers, a captain they didn't trust and crew who didn't respect them. In fact Stacy hadn't like the way the men looked at her at all. She was sure that Robert would be no protection if things got ugly, so she'd decided to stay ashore.

As yet another evening approached she sat on the balcony and watched the sea again. This time she couldn't help crying. This was not turning out anywhere near the way she'd wanted things to. She wanted to be a part of a well-known and respected educational institution and do important research in her field of Ancient history.

Now she was basically her husband's partner's whore. If she was lucky she might get a position as one of Robert's assistants. If she wasn't lucky she might have to go home divorced, heartbroken, penniless and looking for another job.

When she first got here one of the things that she was most assured of was her marriage. In her quest for career advancement, she'd risked that marriage and now wasn't even sure that it would survive. Robert told her that they'd tell Aaron whenever he showed up that they hadn't seen or spoken to each other since the gala. They'd tell him that they'd both started drinking a long time before he got there and had both been wasted. They both regretted their actions totally and had not been of sound mind when it happened. They would both beg his forgiveness and try to put the incident behind them.

It actually sounded somewhat logical and Aaron could probably relate to it since he'd gotten drunk a few times and done some really stupid things too. But as drunk as he got, she had to admit Aaron had never cheated on her and they were constantly around young attractive college girls.

He'd been so drunk once that he hadn't tied off a boat they'd rented and had caused several thousand dollars of damages when the boat floated away, but things like that were the extent of his drunken behavior.

As big and formidable as her husband was, he was an easy going guy who didn't carry grudges. Stacy was sure that once he got over being angry at her, he'd come back to her. Robert was also certain of that.

Stacy also knew that she was depending on Robert or her husband to stay here. She and Aaron had spoken several times since they'd arrived of settling down here. Papalis was the only University in the area and for some reason the Dean and his wife had taken a strong dislike to her. She doubted very seriously that the Dean would hire her on her own, no matter what her qualifications were. She wasn't very sure about how the Dean felt about Robert but she was sure that he liked Aaron. They'd played golf on several occasions the first week they were here.

Two days later, Stacy and Robert met in the large room where the gala had been held, with hundreds of others to await the selection of the teams that had been chosen. There was an air of nervousness in the room. Just waiting for the meeting to begin was very stressful. No one knew which bids had been accepted yet. But there were rumors that the selection process had been changed at the last minute.

Robert and Stacy sat near the middle of the rows of chairs provided for the attendees. They sat apart from each other with several of the students who'd be working with them between them. Both were hoping for and expecting one of Aaron's last minute arrivals. Both of them had a sense of foreboding about this project. For Stacy, it was a feeling like her life had been going in the wrong direction ever since she'd had her first tryst with Robert.

For Robert, it was outright fear. This was probably the biggest challenge of his career thus far and he had no confidence in anything except for his research.

There must have been a thousand intricate little details that Aaron usually handled, that Robert had to try to do him-self. He'd tried to replace the captain and crew only to find out that he couldn't get anyone else on such short notice. If Aaron had been here things would be different. For some reason people liked Aaron. And the ones who didn't like him respected his physical size and strength.

After the captain and his crew discovered that Robert had been trying to replace them, the level of trust between them had eroded further. Come on Aaron, get your ass in here thought Robert. You can have your whore back. She's not worth it.

Suddenly the room got quiet. Robert looked up and saw the Dean step onto the stage at the front of the room. As he began to speak the room got totally quiet.

"We do this challenge every few years or whenever there's a need," said the Dean. "This year besides the monetary benefits we're looking to augment our staff. This time it was particularly difficult to narrow the field down to the five choices, mostly because we had so many well done proposals. It created a problem for us because they were all also very similar. It would appear ladies and gentlemen that the internet and computers bring us closer every day. Some of your search areas overlap and many of them are within a few meters of each other. We've never had a group of results that were so similar since I've been Dean here." Everyone in the room looked around at each other even more nervously.

Robert was shocked; he'd thought his research was unique. Suddenly Stacy leaned over the two students separating them and tapped him on his hand. He looked at her and she pointed over towards the wall on the left side of the room.

He felt better immediately when he noticed where she was pointing. The Dean's beautiful wife was leaning against the wall, but more importantly, next to her stood Aaron Anderson and he had his game face on.

Robert had seen that look on Aaron's face literally hundreds of times when their backs were up against the wall and they'd always come through. Robert wanted to jump up and scream he was so happy, but he held it in. He was after all a professional. Both he and Stacy stared at Aaron wondering what they'd have to do to make things work out.

Robert looked again and made eye contact with Aaron. Aaron gave him a slight nod of his head and turned back to listen to what the Dean was saying. Robert nodded back and noticed no anger in his friend's nod or on his face. Aaron was all business.

Stacy had noticed the nod between her husband and Robert. She tried to make eye contact with him too but he was concentrating on the Dean. He did seem to stop and talk to the Deans wife several times and the woman had rubbed his shoulders a couple of times. Stacy wasn't comfortable with the woman putting her hands on Aaron. When this meeting was over, she might just have to explain that to Mrs. Rinehart.

"Remember the plan," Stacy hissed to Robert. He simply nodded. Stacy was sure that Aaron was, despite his nod to Robert, still angry at them but as a professional was here to work. He hadn't so much as looked at her which meant that though he was willing to work with Robert, he wasn't as forgiving with her. It made sense because he'd always told her Robert was his best friend, but she was his heart. According to their plan whoever Aaron was ready to forgive, would intercede as much as possible for the other.

"So since the proposals were all so similar," continued the Dean. "We used different criteria for our selections. Two of the teams were picked solely on the basis of their reputations. Dr. Thompson's team from the United States and the team led by Dr. Ishikawa from Japan and his partner Dr. Helen Chambers from England. We also picked a team comprised totally of students from our own University. The Team from Germany led by Herr Shtang was selected and finally the team from the Netherlands led..." The rest of the Dean's words were cut off by loud cheers and groans.

Suddenly a very shrill whistle cut through the air. Everyone looked around to find the source of the whistling. It was Elena Rinehart. She smiled and pointed back towards her husband on the stage.

"As I was saying," continued the Dean. "Due to the similarity of all the proposals we eliminated some because they were simply too expensive and some because they were ridiculous. Others we felt were simply not based on sound reasoning. But we did decide strictly on faith and reputation to allow one more team into the challenge. The team led by Aaron Anderson, who was formerly the partner of Dr. Robert Thompson. Mr. Anderson's new researcher is Dr. Maria Clarridge of England, who recently graduated from our own University. One of the reasons we picked them was because the selection of Thompson Anderson was made based on both of their reputations. With them splitting up it was decided that it was only fair to allow them both to participate. There was also the fact that Mr. Anderson's bid was considerably cheaper than any other bid in the challenge and that they are the only group of the selected teams who are exploring a different area. Thank you very much for your participation thus far and good luck to those of you who are still involved."

Robert was in shock. He'd known that Aaron had been angry, but this went beyond anything he'd thought possible. They'd been friends since they were 6 years old. They were closer to being brothers than friends. Robert's mother looked at Aaron as if he were her other son. They were family for Fuck's sake. Why would Aaron want to mess that up over a woman?

Stacy was in as much shock as Robert was. Maria Clarridge had to be that girl who'd come looking for Aaron the other day. Stacy was sure that the Dean's nosey wife had put the two of them together. It was even more obvious that the woman had designs on Aaron. She'd stuck Aaron with a brilliant but unattractive researcher who was a friend of hers. That way she could do whatever she was planning with Aaron with no competition.

She looked over at Robert to see what he was thinking and found that he was already trying to make his way over to where Aaron and the Dean's wife were still talking. The lumpy little woman was there too. Stacy noticed that a man had intercepted Robert and handed him some papers. Robert was suddenly angry and screaming at the man who simply nodded, smiled and turned away.

Stacy decided to let Robert deal with whatever was going on himself. It was probably something related to the equipment or personnel for the project. He hadn't sought her opinion on the research which was just as much her specialty as his, so let him deal with the bullshit details alone as well.

Stacy too turned towards the wall where Aaron had been standing. He, Mrs. Rinehart and the other woman were walking towards the exit with another young woman. This one was taller and less lumpy than Dr. Clarridge. She could be a threat. Stacy watched as the girl reached out and placed her hand on Aaron's lower back as she asked him a question. It was a supposedly innocent gesture but Stacy knew that when a woman wants to show interest in a man, one of the things she does is to find ways to touch him. This gets the guy used to her touch and makes him want more of it. But more importantly it tells other females in the area that the woman is marking her territory.

Stacy was beyond pissed. She'd kill that little bitch for daring to touch Aaron. This was simply going too far. She had to talk to her husband now. Robert came up behind her. He was fuming and about to say something when suddenly a young woman stepped in front of Stacy.

The girl was probably a college student and even more probably trying to get on their team or offer to be Stacy's assistant in exchange for a letter or a recommendation.

"Dr. Stacy Anderson?" asked the girl in a bored voice. She was even chewing gum.

"Yes," said Stacy in an even more bored affectation. She took the papers the girl handed her and looked at them to see where she had to sign them. She could always accept the girl as an assistant and then let her go later.

"You've been served," said the girl walking away.

Stacy was in shock. Her life had suddenly gotten worse. She collapsed into a nearby chair. Robert stood glowering over her. "This is all, your fucking fault," he bellowed. "My best friend is taking me to court to formally dissolve our company and split the assets. He has also named me in your divorce. The scandal will definitely hurt my reputation among some of the old fuddy-duddies who fund grants for academic research. You've really fucked my life up Stacy, thanks."

"Robert, blow it out of your ass," shrieked Stacy. "I don't give a good God damn about your money problems. My husband is divorcing me." Stacy took off in the direction that Aaron had been walking in. By the time she got outside he was already gone. All she could hear was the sound of the Mustang's exhaust system in the distance.

Maria was packing all of the things she thought she'd need on the boat. She was really uneasy and angry for some reason. Actually it wasn't just unease or nervousness about the project. She was specifically pissed at Dana. She didn't actually have a reason to be angry at Dana but she was.

Dana came, flouncing into the room. She was happy but there was nothing unusual about that. Dana was the most happy-go-lucky person Maria knew. Nothing bothered Dana. Maria was sometimes jealous of her friend's ability to keep a positive attitude no matter what.

"We're going to have such a great time," said Dana.

"Some of us more than others," snapped Maria. "Some of us have to work and our careers are on the line."

"Yeah, but if my career was on the line, at least I'd be lucky to have hot guys around to help me with it," said Dana cheerfully. "That professor Anderson is hot. I can't wait to be stuck in the middle of the sea with him."