The Babel Codex Read Free Page A

Sordi.” His English was flawless, but held a hint of Florence.
    “Then why are you here?”
    The student took a step back and raised his iPad as a barrier between Burris and himself. “To gain experience, to enhance my résumé and to learn what I can of this place. Getting chosen for this dig was a very fortunate thing for me.”
    “You call reeking of dirt, sweating yourself stupid and being trapped underground fortunate? ”
    The grad student blinked again. “No, I call discovering this Aksumite trading fort fortunate. You couldn’t drive me from this place with all the bulls in Pamplona.”
    “You ever run with the bulls there?”
    The grad student shifted uncomfortably. “No. It was simply a meta—”
    “Well, I have. Three times.” Burris hiked up a shirt sleeve to reveal a long scar. “Got that my second time.” He reached for his belt buckle. “Third time, I got gored in the—”
    Face burning with embarrassment, the grad student turned to the artifacts in front of him. “Please excuse me. I must return to my work.”
    Burris looked at Annja. “You want to see my scar?”
    “If you show it to me, you’re going to have a bed next to your skeleton and that scar will never look the same.”
    A wide grin split Burris’s face as he released his belt buckle. “Maybe after we get to know each other a little better.”
    “Trust me, we’ll never know each other that well.”
    “Ouch.” Burris drew back and frowned. “Your guy Doogie said you could be difficult.”
    “Doug.”
    “Whatever.”
    “I was told you had something to show me.”
    “I tried.” Burris grinned.
    Annja just stared at him.
    “Wow. Total flame-out there, I guess.” Burris gestured to one of the tunnels. “I wanted to show you some stuff that’s been recovered. Get your take on them for your show.”
    “What stuff? ”
    “C’mon. You’ll see.” Plucking a flashlight from one of the nearby tables, Burris headed off down the tunnel.
    Reluctantly, wishing she could get back to helping Professor Sordi and his team, Annja followed.

Chapter Three
    “I wanted to do something more interesting than playing
in the sandbox with the other kiddies.” Flashlight in hand, Burris entered
another excavated room in the older section of the dig that didn’t relate to the
original find or the Aksumite discovery. “Thought maybe I’d show you some
artifacts that a few of the local tomb raiders have dug up. Get your take on
them.”
    Doug , you so owe me. Annja stepped into the
room and felt as if she’d entered a Hollywood set. The earthen walls stood out
in sharp relief under the camcorder lights and other lights. The wall to Annja’s
right was covered with artifacts that looked hundreds of years old but weren’t.
They were knockoffs that tourists bought in the mercato , the city’s large open market.
    Thick, apelike skulls occupied center stage of the
presentation. Given the flaring cheekbones and pronounced canine teeth, Annja
felt certain the skulls were based on Lucy and Ramidus, two hominid skeletons
recovered from the area.
    Around them, fake jewelry, period costumes and stone weapons
hung on the wall. A mummified monkey in swaddling clothes sat on the ground
beneath them, its glass eyes gleaming. The monkey mummy’s feet were perched on a
clay brick. Nearby, a bronze lion wearing a crown tipped at a jaunty angle
carried a pennant. A small collection of pottery sat on either side.
    Two young male camera operators stood on the other side of the
large room filming Annja and Burris as they entered. Part of Burris’s entourage,
they’d mostly stayed in the bars with their boss.
    Burris immediately ratcheted up his showman performance. “And
here she is, folks, your favorite archaeologist, fresh from the historic dig in
Addis Ababa where an old site from the Kingdom of Aksum has recently been found
by Dr. Vittorio Sordi, of the Università degli Studi di Milano.”
    The radio personality’s flawless Italian caught Annja