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“Hey, babe, how are you?” asked my fiancé, Bradley, over the phone.

“I’m good. It’s hectic here.” I stood by the mobile office, watching as a group of volunteers arrived, being escorted to their worksite by William.

“How many more days are you gonna be out there? We were supposed to meet my parents this weekend.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” I swatted at a flying insect. “I just … we’ve just had a major discovery. I want to tell you about it, but I’ve got to get back to work.” Uncovering the artifacts in the cave had taken priority over everything else, because we suspected that, once word got out, there would be a firestorm of media coverage. We had managed to keep it under wraps, but for how long?

“Will you stay the weekend then?”

“Probably.”

“That really stinks, Amy.”

“It does, but it’s not forever. We’ll just postpone stuff a little. Tell your parents I said sorry. I did want to get together with them.”

“My mom wants to go over wedding planning. We still haven’t set a date.”

“We will.” Professor Pine arrived, parking his car by the trailer. “I need to go. Talk to you later.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Yes, love.” I dropped the phone in my pocket, as Stephen approached. He wore brown trousers and a light blue top. A wide-brimmed hat shaded his face and neck. “Hey.”

“Good morning.” He grinned. “Anybody at the site yet?”

“Two volunteers.” We discovered something extraordinary yesterday, but the recovery process remained maddeningly slow. “I was going to head out to see if they’ve made progress.”

“So was I, but I gotta check on a few things. Professor Burdoff ran radiocarbon tests. He’s arriving this morning with the results, which I expect to be the same as ours.”

“No doubt.” Two nights ago he had all but asked me to sleep with him. I had been horribly tempted, stunned by the fact that I hadn’t really gotten over him yet. It was something I would have to work through, but these reactions bothered me greatly. “I put a fresh pot of coffee on.”

“Bless you.” He took to the steps. “Come keep me company, while I make a cup.”

“I … I’m going to the site. Somebody needs to supervise.”

“Suit yourself.” He stepped into the mobile office, closing the door behind him.

Having rained last night, wetness lingered on the ground, the humidity stifling. I longed to be in the cave, where it felt cool. Hurrying towards the worksite, I followed the little path, which wandered through a thicket and down an embankment to the opening. A cable from a portable generator ran inside to power the lights, the sound of music playing. Someone had a radio on, which made the hours of work far more enjoyable.

I entered, seeing a volunteer in the far corner, brushing sand from an artifact on the floor. “Morning.”

She glanced my way. “Morning, Professor Sandhurst.”

I came to stand over her, eyeing the bone fragments she had uncovered. “Good work.”

“It’s nice in here. It beats being out in the sun.”

“I know. It’s awesome. Who’s in the back?”

“Rudy.”

“Okay. I’m gonna see what he’s uncovered.” Squeezing through the tight opening, I emerged into the next chamber, where a volunteer sat in the center of the room, a brush in hand. “Morning.”

“Hey, Amy.”

“How’s it goin’?”

“It’s coming along.”

The caves had been photographed and measured, sectioned off in a grid pattern. Professor Pine had brought in a metal detector, finding nothing in the first room, but it had gone off in the center of this one. “I want to help.”

“Absolutely. Grab a brush.”

This was what I lived for. This was why I became an archaeologist. The thrill of uncovering long-forgotten objects that might shed light on the past made all the endless weeks of scraping away at nothing worth the effort. Hundreds of hours of class time, thousands of hours in the field, hoping, searching, and waiting for a glimpse of archaic treasure. Something metal lurked beneath the surface of the floor, which defied all logic, because the Clovis culture had not obtained that technology.

Oh, Janet. What did you leave behind?

Two hours later, we had made progress, small, rounded shapes appearing beneath our brushes, and we knew they were coins. Professor Pine had joined us, taking over, while I sat nearby, eyeing the find with excitement. “God, this is killing me.”

“Patience, grasshopper,” said Stephen. “We’re nearly there. I’m seeing something.”

Getting on my hands and knees, I stared at the assortment of artifacts. They lay scattered together. “It’s a modern coin, isn’t it?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. I believe there’s a penny as well and a quarter.” He brushed away the last bit of dirt. “In God we trust.” Sitting back on his heels, he glanced at me, his expression less than pleased. “We’re never going to be able to prove this is Clovis culture. Unless we find some bone or charcoal that dates back, this is impossible. It’s a total waste.”

“Because people will assume someone buried it recently.”

“Yeah.”

“There’s more there, Stephen.” Small objects jutted, although they remained covered in dirt. “So, the money can’t be proven, but we all know who put it there.”

“That’s a theory.”

“I know it was Janet. She probably buried a bundle of things, hoping we’d find them.”

“And we have.”

“But there’s more.”

“Let’s see what else comes up. Grab a brush.”

It wasn’t long before the edges of a shiny object appeared, rounded and glowing like gold. “I’m guessing it’s a ring.”

Stephen nodded. “That’s my thought.”

“She’d been engaged. I bet it’s her ring.”

“Which, unfortunately, does not prove a hill of beans either.”

“But it’s hers. It’s over ten thousand years old. The oldest known gold find in the Americas is four thousand years. The beaded, tubed necklace from Lake Titicaca in Peru. That dates back to 2100 BC.”

“Yes, but I’m sure we’ll discover this one was crafted in 2012.”

William’s face appeared in the gap in the wall. “Hey, some guy is here to see you, Amy.”

“What?”

“Brian Lutz.”

Stephen seemed puzzled. “Who’s he?”

I was almost too stunned to speak. “Janet’s fiancé.”

“This will be uncovered soon.” He brushed away at the dirt, revealing more gold.

I got to my feet. “I’m coming.” William waited for me to squeeze through the opening; I emerged in the other chamber. “This is Janet’s fiancé. I’m shocked he came. He wasn’t too receptive to the idea that she time traveled.”

“It sounds … crazy, doesn’t it?”

“We’re collecting enough evidence. When you put it all together, it won’t be so crazy.” Emerging into sunlight, I glanced at the tall, slender man before me, holding out a hand. “Amy Sandhurst. I’m really surprised you came.” I grinned.

He did not return the smile, but he shook my hand. “Brian Lutz. I’m surprised I came. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here.”

A volunteer had brought him over. “Thanks, Marlene.”

“No problem, Professor Sandhurst.” She turned to leave.

“We’ve just made a new discovery. You should come in and see it.”

“I suppose I should, but I think all of you are nuts.”

“You almost have to be to work in this profession,” I giggled. “We’re all questioning our sanity nowadays. Nothing’s making any sense, but the evidence speaks for itself. You can’t argue with the science of radiocarbon dating. It’s not negotiable. You can assume everything else is just coincidence or hypothesis, but when something is tested and it comes back with a date, it’s irrefutable. It’s like a DNA sample.”

He followed me into the first chamber, gazing around. “You people go through a lot of effort to dig in the dirt.” It had been painstakingly sectioned off in a grid pattern.

“We do. It’s our job to be as thorough and accurate as possible. It’s this way.” I squeezed through the opening, and he followed.

Stephen glanced at us. “It’s an engagement ring all right. Quite a bit of the gold’s worn off, but everything else is intact.”

“This is Brian Lutz, Professor Pine. He bought that ring.”

Brian came to stand beside me, and then he crouched, glancing at the floor. “I see dirt.”

I squatted next to him, pointing. “Those are coins. Modern coins. The ring’s modern as well, since Clovis man didn’t have the technology to craft metal. They were stone and bone people.”

“Anyone could’ve buried this stuff at any time.”

“Very true,” agreed Stephen. “We won’t be able to prove anything with these artifacts. They’re more circumstantial, but the cave paintings are authentic. The message on the ceiling dates back. I’m one-hundred percent certain Janet Delgrange and three other people lived in the Clovis period.” He brushed away at the ring, revealing it completely. A round diamond sat in a six-prong mounting, surrounded by small diamonds on either side, although two had fallen out, lying nearby. The metal had disintegrated with age, looking frail.

Brian pulled out a cell phone, scrolling through pictures, finding one of a ring. “I gave this to her.” He had photographed it at the store, sitting in a velvet-lined box. “It’s a carat and a half with another half carat of small stones. The diamond itself is laser engraved with a serial number, which I have.”

I stared at the picture, looking at the ring in the dirt. “Could be one and the same, but we won’t know until it’s out.”

Stephen stared at the image. “Interesting. Nice ring, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

“We’ll need that picture, if you don’t mind. You can send it to Amy. Once we remove the artifacts, we’ll examine everything thoroughly. If it’s laser engraved, we’ll find the number.”

“Would you like to see the drawings she did?” I indicated the ceiling. “She was a busy woman. She must’ve been bored.” I grinned, but Brian wasn’t smiling.

“Yeah, I’ll have a look.” But I sensed it was more to humor us than out of genuine interest. I gave him a flashlight, although there was sufficient lighting. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

He glanced overhead, eyeing the artwork.

“She would have drawn things she saw in her everyday life.” I pointed. “Those are clearly turtles. There are about twenty drawings of deer. They were probably a staple in their diets. The mastodons are impressive. Can you imagine seeing one of those in the flesh? They grew to over nine feet in height and weighed nearly five tons. They were prevalent at the time and were hunted.” He pointed the light on an image we had not been able to make out. “I don’t know what that is.” It looked like a mistake, a messy paint spot.

“She was working on design logos for her website. One of the ideas was a paint splotch. She was going to write Janet Art on the inside. I’ve her notebooks at home. She did a few variations of that idea.”

“You think that’s what she drew?”

“Looks like it.”

“When you get back, can you take pictures of those drawings and send them to me?”

“I will.” He continued to stare at the paintings overhead.

“What do you think? Clovis man wasn’t known for cave art. This is extremely uncharacteristic, but it wasn’t done by any Paleo-Indian. It was done by Janet.”

“It could be.”

“Do you have any other examples of her artwork?”

“Lots.”

“I’d really love to see them. I can give you an address to send stuff to. We can compare it to these, but I’m certain they’re from the same artist.”

He took a deep breath. “This is impossible.” He glanced at me. “What you’re suggesting is … crazy.”

“It is, but for some insane reason, she was here ten thousand years ago.”