The other students who had taken the shuttle with us already had assignments, and they quickly dispersed to their usual trenches, which left Henry, Tamara and me standing awkwardly next to the van, wondering where we should go. A power tool whirred noisily somewhere in the distance, making a grinding sound that echoed off the hills around us. I wasn’t sure whether we should follow the sound or wait for someone to come get us. I was just contemplating getting back in the van and hiding out in there for the rest of the day when Erick bustled up, fiddling with something on his palmtop as he walked.

“Hello Isaak,” he said. “Tamara, Henry. Glad you could make it. Since you’re new to the project, I’m putting each of you with an experienced group, to show you the ropes.”

Our first day on site, Erick spent most of the time showing us the ins and outs of the dig. Henry and Tamara both were assigned to Trench 21, one of the bigger pits the project had excavated out thus far. Even though one of the other professors was technically the supervisor in that area, it appeared that Grant had appointed himself the unofficial lead. I would have felt sorry for them, except I noticed that Erick had placed me in Trench 17, an area that he was supervising personally. Coincidentally, that would give us plenty of opportunity to get to know each other better. Perfect.

The good news was that Scylla was also working Trench 17. Her friendly exuberance was a bit intense, but it was far preferable to Grant’s imperiousness.

The site was much busier than I’d expected it to be, based on how quiet things had been the day of our tour—although, that day had been a weekday, and most of the workers were students. The machinery sound turned out to be emanating from Trench 6, where they were using a massive rig to drill core samples.

“This will enable us to get a more generalized look at the changes in geological strata over time,” Erick explained. “But we also want to get a more detailed, up-close look at what’s going on out here, and that’s where you all will come in. Trenches 17 and 21 are being excavated by hand, which lets us examine the different areas with a bit more finesse.”