Read In Too Deep for Free Online

could question it, he was on his feet.
    â€œLet’s get this cleaned up and go over my notes. It’s getting late.”
    The brief amiable mood was gone and, to Cara’s surprise, she was disappointed. On some level, she’d hoped that Rod Craig would help her to understand her father. It would have been a serendipitous side effect of the trip. And at first it had appeared that he would. Now, though, he was shutting her out again, treating her as the outsider she’d always felt herself to be. He’d suddenly made her feel as though she were prying. She shuddered as a familiar loneliness engulfed her.
    It took every ounce of determination she possessed to pull herself together and get on with the business at hand. She washed up their few dishes while Rod got his reports and drawings. He lit a lantern in the tent and spread the sketches on the cot.
    At first she chafed at his intentionally simplified explanations, but as she asked more detailed questions, his responses became increasingly complex and technical. She was impressed with his thoroughness and told him so. His lips twitched with irritating amusement. He clearly felt he was indulging some crazy whim of hers. She refused to rise to the bait. It would only convince him his patronizing attitude was justified.
    â€œBefore we decide on any recommendations, I want to see the site in the morning,” she said when he’d finished.
    â€œIt’s not necessary. You have everything you need right here in front of you.” He regarded her coolly. “Unless, of course, you’re questioning my competence.”
    â€œOf course not. But as long as I’m here, I might as well see everything for myself. You know Scottie will have a thousand questions.”
    â€œAnd the answers will all be in the report.”
    â€œNot all of them,” she said pointedly.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œYou said earlier there were problems. You don’t mention them in anything you’ve written. Don’t you think I should see them for myself?”
    â€œThere are problems, but not with the site itself. At least not from an engineering point of view.”
    â€œThen what is it?”
    â€œIt depends on whom you ask.”
    â€œI’m asking you.”
    â€œWell, for starters, there is a small tribe of Lacandones living in the area. They’d have to be relocated. They’ve already been forced from pillar to post by the mahogany cutters and immigrants who’ve been encouraged by the government to move onto the land. Their primitive, isolated way of life has been virtually destroyed by the spreading tentacles of civilization.”
    â€œWe’re in the business of progress, Rod.”
    â€œThat doesn’t mean I always have to like it.”
    â€œIs there more?”
    â€œThere are some archaeologists who object rather strenuously to the dam.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œIt will flood a huge section of the valley south of here.”
    â€œSo? The government must see the loss of land as a necessary trade-off.”
    â€œIt’s not just land. Mayan ruins will be lost at Yaxchilan. There’s no way of knowing how many currently undiscovered sites might also be flooded out.”
    An image of the spectacular Mayan ruins she’d once seen at Uxmal and Chichen Itza surfaced. “I see,” she said, troubled. “The government knows this?”
    â€œI understand formal protests have been made.”
    Cara sighed. It was a side of the business that nagged at her conscience more than she would have liked. Still, it had nothing to do with WHS. If the Mexicans wanted a dam along the Usumacinta, the company’s only responsibility was to advise on feasibility, prepare thorough engineering studies and cost estimates and to oversee construction. The ethical and moral issues involved in the possible destruction of antiquities were best left to others.
    â€œWhat’s your