Immortality Read Free Page A

lead. Mark loved her most when she was displaying this kind of independence. She was twenty-three years old and had the looks everyone considered the natural California girl. She had a perfect body and long straw colored hair that was real and not from a bottle. She could have been one of those girls seen on a beer commercial, and might have been except for one thing: Gracy was determined to be recognized for her brains, not her looks. She had one of the highest grade point averages at UCLA and was on her way to earning a Ph.D. a year ahead of schedule.
    Mark stared at her as she continued to put distance between them. Her clothing was a mix of Wyoming and The Coast . She had on jeans, an old silver studded belt, a t-shirt, an insulated vest, and a funky western hat. She was getting too far out in front of him. Mark called back to the stragglers. “Come on folks! When we get there, it’s Miller Time!” All he got in response were groans, but the pace did pick up.
     
    The forced march ended at a rocky knoll. Mark laid a map out on the ground and pegged the corners with stones. Gracy sat opposite him and was busy with her field notes. The other students were resting and talking among themselves. Mark suspected the topic was mutiny and smiled. He switched on his GPS. The device was a military model the size of a cell phone and cost ten times as much as a commercial GPS. Most civilians were not allowed to own this kind of military hardware, but a Nobel Prize and called in favors got him altitude and map coordinates accurate to less than an inch.
    “This is a good place to set up camp,” he said. “Site A4 is all around us.”
    “Groovy... Why don’t I break out the beers?” said Gracy.
    “You know I never drink on duty.”
    “Sure,” said Gracy. “And you never swear and always hold the door for ladies.”
    “Duddly Do-Right at your service.”
    Gracy opened the lid of what Mark called his specimen container. The Coleman ice chest would be filled with fossil specimens on the return trip; but right now inside were several blocks of dry ice, four six packs of Miller, and fifteen pounds of frozen ground meat.
    The iced beer flowed down Mark’s throat, taking with it any remnant of fatigue. Marie and Tony had gone off in search of wood and, Mark suspected, each other. He gazed around at the vast surroundings. On the west side of his hill were the beginnings of the Rocky Mountains. On the east side was the ocean-sized basin of grass. Gracy had the beer raised to her mouth. Mark reached over and tickled her sides. She spit beer all over him and the map.
    “You bastard!” she yelled.
    She grabbed him and they wrestled on the ground until he had her pinned. Her cheeks were flushed.
    “Give up,” said Mark.
    “No!”
    Some leaves were tangled in her hair. She squirmed under his weight, but he had her solidly pinned. He felt her muscles relax as she stopped fighting him. He knew she was trying to catch him off guard and didn’t give her a break when she suddenly tried to roll him off.
    “All right,” she said. “What’ll it take for you to let me up?”
    “A kiss.”
    “Never!”
    Mark kissed her on the lips then got off her cautiously as if she were a cat about to strike. Gracy sat up. She removed a leaf that was dangling over her face. Her hair was a mess of blonde tangles. Mark could tell by the look in her eyes she was plotting revenge.
    ~

    The sun was creeping down toward the western rim of mountains. The storm clouds were half again as close as they had been in the afternoon. The team had been working the site for hours.
    Mark looked over another piece of limestone. There had been several fossils of large marine animals but no mats of Chromatium Omri . This piece of rock was no different. Gracy had taken charge of the two students responsible for chipping off vertical slabs of limestone. The other three were off scouting.
    The bacteria should have been here. Mark turned around and pitched a small piece of