He turned crisply back to Erick. “It’s a good thing I did, too. Looks like one of your diggers there found something of interest.”

Erick moved over to me. I held the object in my gloved hand, but I was careful not to move; the location of the find still needed to be recorded. Erick looked down and frowned. “Yeah, I see that. All right, Isaak, we’re going to have to turn the site over to Mr. Condor and his men now.”

“What? Why?”

“It’s GSAF property. Our contract agreement states that any non-natural finds that turn up have to be excavated by GSAF officials.”

I was taken aback. I knew he said that any objects like this we found had to be given to GSAF, but I thought we would still be the ones to do the excavating. “We just… leave?” I sputtered. “I mean, how do you know they’re not going to do anything to damage the site while we’re gone?”

The man in the suit turned those freaky blue eyes back to me. His graying hair was thin and cut close to his scalp. “I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself properly. I’m Joseph Condor, GSAF Director of Land Use for Aeolis Province.” He held his hand out for me to shake it. I stared at him, unsure how to respond; I still held the earpod-like object in my filthy, gloved right hand. Eventually Condor frowned and put his hand back in his pocket. “This land is unincorporated, and as such is GSAF property. That makes it our responsibility to administer. In a way, we could be asking, ‘How do we know you won’t do any damage to our site?’” He smiled, his lips thin. “But our partnership with Kimbal University is built on trust, er…”

He trailed off and looked at me expectantly. I replied, “Isaak.”

“Yes, Isaak. So you see, it’s important for all parties involved to cooperate.”

I glanced over at Tamara, who still knelt in the mud a few meters away. Celeste stood behind her, holding Tamara’s backdirt bin and looking nervous. It had to be bad news when even Celeste was put off by the guy.

“Okay. I understand,” I said.

Erick turned to Professor Luna. “Clara, put in a call to the other students that today’s dig is canceled. Joseph, I’ll have everyone else out of here in ten minutes.”

Condor nodded amiably, his narrow lips still twisted up into a smile. I started gathering my tools and then stood up, trying to wipe the dirt off my knees but smearing mud everywhere instead.

“I’m glad you’re cooperating, Isaak,” Condor said in a low voice, not turning to face me. “After what happened the first time you were here, GSAF was a little concerned about your continued presence on site.”