This is just about the skeleton, I told myself as I shuffled over to the black chair across from him and sat. Mr. Culver sat beside me, like an attorney in a crime flick. They don’t know about anything else.

“So sorry to have to take you away from your studies, but GSAF matters do take some precedence,” he said.

“Of course,” I replied in what I hoped was a steady voice. “Is this about Saturday?”

“Indeed.”

“Have you identified the body yet?”

Mr. Culver glanced over at me, startled. Apparently Joseph Condor hadn’t filled him in on all the details.

Condor smiled and lifted his chin, assessing me. “I’m afraid that’s classified information, for the time being. I’m sure you have many questions, but for the time being, we need you to focus on answers. Can you give me an account of your movements leading up to the discovery of the body?”

I breathed in slowly, tracing my finger across the Plexiglas and keeping my eyes focused on the movement. Stay calm, Isaak.

“Not a whole lot to say. I was in Trench 17, like usual. We were just doing our dig work when we heard someone scream. Then there was a call over the radio, our TA went over to check it out, and the cops showed up a few minutes later.”

“That’s all?”

I nodded. “Like I said, I wasn’t in the trench where the discovery happened, so I don’t know what all went down.”

Condor glanced at one of his companions, who quickly made a few notes on his deskpad. It was one of the newer models, the folding kind. Mama D had helped AresTec develop the membrane used for the screen.

“And had you uncovered anything that day, before the discovery of the skeleton?”

I shrugged. “Nothing of interest. Some rocks, a few seashells. The usual.”

Another note on the deskpad.

Condor clucked his tongue. “Isaak, the grad student assigned to your trench—I believe his name is…” He glanced over at the man on his left. The man made a few quick swipes across the deskpad.

“Gilbert Saldaña.”

“That’s right, Gilbert. Gilbert informed us that you and one of the college students—one Priscilla Hwang—appeared to have unearthed a metallic object of some sort, just before the call came in on the radio. But when we went through the catalog of the day’s finds, there was no record of this. And we can find no sign of such an object at the site.”

“A metallic object?” I furrowed my brows and looked up at the ceiling, as if trying to remember. “I don’t think so, sir. We found a couple of big rocks that day, as usual. But nothing metal.”

“Are you sure?”