“And that,” Max chuckled. He wasn’t exactly sure how it had happened, but somewhere along the way, Hudson had become one of his oldest friends. The man wasn’t a person he’d necessarily spill his guts to, but they’d had a few drinking and bitching sessions over the years when digs weren’t going how they’d hoped.
But out of everyone Max had worked with over the years, Hudson was the most dependable. He might be a lot of bluster and hot air, but he truly believed in what they were doing. He put in the long, insane hours and pushed damn hard to help archeologists find what they were looking for. Hudson was an independent contractor. He got paid regardless of whether anything was discovered.
“Bull was my ground guy for my previous three digs, and when I was assisting on other digs, he’s the guy I recommended to the lead archeologists. Most took my advice. The ones that didn’t already had a person they trusted to do the work.”
The truth was, any archeologist who spent time in a specific area tended to have very set teams. From the various different archeology specialists they have on hand to the finds manager and the site manager to even the diggers they bring to the team.
“So you know, I’m not just another spade turner. I started out as a run-o’-the-mill geologist and then fell in with a bunch of archeologists who needed a guy to read the rocks for them.” Hudson sighed and scrubbed a hand through his wiry gray-and-brown hair. No matter the time of day, it was always standing on end as if he were a puffy white dandelion.
“Gotta watch out for those archeologists. They’re a crazy bunch,” Max muttered.
“Too true. But I ended up returning and getting my PhD in geoarchaeology.”
Max snorted. “Except he doesn’t like to do the paperwork the rest of us have to do.”
“Fuck papers and articles and the begging for funding.” Hudson leaned closer to the camera as if he were trying to ignore Max and talk directly to Kairo. “These archeologists are smart, but they need a guy like me to run the geophysical surveys and read the reports. I use things like magnetometry, resistivity, and ground-penetrating radar to look for differences in the soil and rock such as floors and walls. The radar is even sensitive enough to pick out artifacts. That’s why Maxie boy keeps coming back to me.”
A sigh slipped from Max and he dropped both of his hands on the top of his head. “It’s true. Bull knows his shit. You bury half a bit of pottery five thousand years ago in the desert and this bastard will find it.”
Hudson leaned in and rubbed his hands together, a wicked grin slowly spreading across his lips. “But you…you found the tomb that everyone has been salivating over for nearly a hundred years. And you’re going to let your old buddy Bull in on the find.”
Max held up one finger. “I think I found it. I’ve got it narrowed down to two regions, and I need my old buddy Bull to do some ground sounding for me to confirm my hypothesis.” He leaned forward and grabbed a stack of papers beside the monitor and held them up in front of the camera. “All the permits and paperwork came in from the government this morning. We’ve got the permission we’ve been waiting on to start doing our initial surveying.”
“But it’s the end of the season!” Hudson moaned, throwing up his hands.
“True, but if we find the site and get the initial markers in, the head of the Ministry of State for Antiquities has promised to protect it from grave robbers. I don’t have that kind of manpower at my disposal. We’ll be ready to go at the very beginning of the season. That means we can sneak in a possible four full weeks. At the very least, two!”
Hudson leaned back and rubbed his jaw. “If you’ve got the permits, it means you’ve got the funding. Enough?”
Max snorted. “Plenty. The funding was locked the second I laid my hands on Kazemde’s final scarab. There are lots of donors who want their names associated with this dig. We’re going in fully staffed and with all the gear we could want.”
Closing his eyes, Hudson released a happy sigh. “A fully funded dig. I thought those were only legends. It’ll be nice to work on one of those.”
“Tell me about it,” Max mumbled. The money side was the ugly side of a dig. Watching every freaking penny to make sure nothing was wasted. And double-checking that you were using all the hours you hired a specialist for. No waste anywhere while subsisting on as little as possible just to stretch those pennies.
“Since you’re Mr. Moneybags with your fancy funding, does that mean you’re going to have your security team at the dig the entire time?” Hudson asked, jerking his chin to Kairo.