She acquiesced and twisted forward in her seat, glancing now at a sleeping Townsend.  Again, he was angled uncomfortably against the window, just as he had been on their previous flight.   “If only you had his problem.”

“I’d rather see what’s going on.”

“You’re an interesting man, Joe Rickards.”

“Believe me,” he said with a smirk. “I’m not.”

Angela studied the cabin with him for a few moments before turning and leaning back against the headrest.  “Surprised to be on yet another flight rather than headed home?”

“I would say yes,” he replied, “but this seems to happen a lot when I’m with you.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

He gave her a humorous frown.

“I’m teasing.”  She reached down and straightened the thin blanket around her legs.  “Well, at least I’m not going to mention anything about you having nothing better to do.”

“Than fly halfway around the world?  Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Rickards turned.  “I would have thought you’d be the one to say no.”

“Why?” she asked. “Because of my traveling phobia?”

He knew it was less about her reluctance to fly and more about the event that caused it, a terrible experience she’d had in South America just out of college.

“Maybe I’m getting better,” she said thoughtfully.  “Or maybe it’s just because I’ve always wanted to visit Egypt.”

“The archeologist in you.”

“Egypt is at the top of the list for most archeologists.  And anthropologists.”

“Two for the price of one, then.”

She grinned.  “There’s still a lot of mystery in Egypt.  A lot left to be discovered.”

“Well, I’m not buying a shovel and digging around with you if that’s what you’re getting at.”

Angela laughed.  “That’s not what I mean.  Archeologically speaking, yes, there is still much left to unearth.  But in this case, I was speaking anthropologically.”

“You mean culturally?”

“Right.  Not just what was there before, but how it all ties together.  Take the great pyramids, for example.  Archeologically, they have been examined from practically every possible angle by thousands of researchers.  But anthropologically, we’re only beginning to scratch the surface.  I mean, just the sheer effort involved in constructing them from a human standpoint is mind-boggling.  Ten thousand people over the span of fifty years or more.”  She shook her head.  “Imagine the sheer scale of human and social sacrifice just to bring one pyramid to fruition.”

“I’m guessing the slave labor made things easier.”

“Ah, but that’s just it.  Most people think that.  But they weren’t slaves.”

Rickards turned to look at her.

“For years, decades really, it was assumed the great pyramids were built with slave labor.  But recent evidence tells us that’s not true.”

“No?”