The Temple Mount Code Read Free

student assigned to him by Professor Hu. Gloria Chen was a graduate student of linguistics with a minor in archaeology. The emphasis in both fields of study centered on the Neolithic Yellow River Period. Jiahu was one of the most important, and, until recently, largely unexplored sites that had been discovered. Lourds and Gloria were both there to further the study of evolutionary linguistics, trying to unlock the mystery of how human language was created over the millennia. In particular, Lourds hoped to find clues to some of the earliest protolanguages in existence.
    ‘Sorry, Gloria. Still recovering a bit from last night.’ Lourds spoke in Cantonese, which was Gloria’s first language. He squatted at the soft edge of the grave he’d been contemplating. Dirt tumbled into the hole from his movement, and he slid his foot back, fearing the lip might crumble and send him sprawling.
    The original resident lay inside the rectangular hole. The grad assistants working on the project with the Peking professors had partially excavated the skeleton, but the bones lay semisubmerged in dirt, dust, and debris.
    ‘I heard about your little adventure.’ Gloria’s tone was neither fawning nor disapproving.
    ‘Did you?’
    ‘Oh yes, it was the talk of the camp this morning. This might help.’ She joined Lourds and handed him a bottle of chilled water, which he took gratefully.
    ‘What can you tell me about this person?’ Gloria was slim and beautiful, in her midtwenties. She wore her black hair short, and it only brushed her shoulders. Prescription sunglasses covered her eyes, but Lourds had noticed they were a peculiar yellow hazel. She wore canvas pants and a T-shirt.
    Lourds grinned, set the half-empty bottle of water down beside him, then lifted his battered Australian Outback hat and ran a hand through his black hair. ‘I’m not a forensic anthropologist.’ He replied in English. ‘You’d have to ask Professor Chaoju or one of his grads for information like that.’ He looked back at the skeleton. ‘I can speculate that this was a man or a very young girl because the hips are too narrow for a mature woman. But I could be wrong about that. Probably am.’
    The young woman laughed. ‘Somehow, after the way Professor Hu talked about you, I just expected you to know everything.’
    ‘Not hardly. Professor Hu is too generous with his praise.’
    ‘But you’re the man that discovered Atlantis.’
    ‘I also lost it. Never forget that.’ Lourds had had the find of a lifetime in the palm of his hand, and it had slipped away to the sea bottom.
    Lourds finished the bottle of water and slid it into the cracked leather backpack containing his tools, books, and cameras. Then he stood and stretched. Despite the fact he was tall and lean and stayed active, his body didn’t always meet the demands he put upon it the way it once had.
    Lourds looked around. A lot of people from all over the world were working the Jiahu dig. He’d already seen a number of archaeological teams he knew from past acquaintance and from reputation. As far as he knew, he was the only Harvard University professor currently on-site. And that had been at Professor Hu’s express invitation, which Lourds hadn’t hesitated to accept.
    ‘Where’s Professor Hu?’ Lourds shaded his eyes with his hat as he scanned the various dig groups.
    Hu had a tendency to wander off and socialize. The man was a Facebook demon and seemed to have the ability to keep up with the whole world. But it had been Hu’s reputation that had pried Lourds free of Harvard and sent him off to Peking.
    Gloria pointed. ‘There. Why?’
    ‘I want to get someone who knows what they’re doing to exhume this skeleton.’
    ‘I think they plan on doing it soon.’
    ‘I know, but I’d rather they get to this one sooner.’ Lourds walked in Hu’s direction.
    Professor David Hu was a small, slight man. His black hair had gone gray years ago, but hadn’t completely given up. Strands of