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motionless chest. No check they made came up positive, however.
    Another minute seemed to pass before anyone spoke. The tutors were standing up again as Alan began a long rambling explanation about how and where they’d found Craig, and how he’d accidentally knocked the body to the ground while trying to recover it. His words petered out as Clive hunkered down and checked again for vital signs, still to no avail.
    Eventually, Professor Mercy looked up and gazed around at them. Her expression was difficult to read. Linda, on the other hand, was visibly upset, her green eyes glazed with tears. Nug was grim, David still white-faced. For all his usual bravado, even Barry Wood seemed shaken up.
    â€œThis is a bitter lesson to us all,” the Professor finally said. “It just shows … this is not some holiday idyll. This is wild countryside and we’re out on our own in it. From now on, recreational activities are out, okay? No exceptions.”
    Alan looked up at her in surprise. “From now on? You mean we’re going on with the dig?”
    She shrugged. “What else can we do?”
    â€œBut surely we’re at least going to call someone?” he said. “I mean, the Coast Guard for instance. McEndry said we could …”
    The Professor eyed him keenly. “Why should we alert the Coast Guard? Nobody’s in danger, nobody needs rescuing.”
    Alan was astounded. “But someone’s just died!”
    â€œPeople die all the time, Alan,” she replied. “Accidents happen. It’s terrible, I admit, tragic, but we’ve got a boat coming on Thursday evening. We don’t need to call the Coast Guard.”
    â€œDon’t you think we should at least report it?”
    â€œWe will do,” she said. “As soon as one of us gets back to the mainland.”
    â€œI don’t believe I’m hearing this …”
    Now Barry Wood stepped in. Inevitably, because the Professor was occupying a position contrary to Alan’s, he was on her side. “There’s nothing anyone can do, is there?” he said. “No-one can bring him back.”
    Alan looked from one to the other. “So you’re saying we just carry on as though nothing’s happened?”
    â€œWe’ll put Craig in the monks’ cave for the moment,” the Professor replied. “No sense in burying him when we’ll be out of here soon …”
    â€œAre you serious?” Alan turned for support from some of the others. “Surely I’m not the only one here who thinks we should call for help?”
    Clive looked uncertain. “It’s legally beholden on us to report the incident, of course,” he said.
    â€œBut that would mean making the find public knowledge before we’ve even half excavated it,” the Professor replied. Now Alan caught a glimmer of the way she was rationalising the tragedy. It both horrified and sickened him.
    Clive nodded to himself. “That must be a consideration.”
    â€œWhy don’t we take a vote?” said Barry.
    Alan was incredulous. “A vote?”
    â€œOn whether we carry on, or call for McEndry to come early.”
    â€œFor Christ’s sake, someone has just died!”
    â€œYes, but this is the find of the century, we’re sitting on here,” the Professor argued. “The last thing we need now is the press crawling all over the island, not to mention souvenir hunters.”
    Alan found himself staring at her in disbelief and no little disgust; a stare she returned intently. For a fleeting moment, it was like he was looking at someone else, someone who also had beauty and power, but who had ice running through her veins instead of blood, who had a thing of iron where her heart should be. It was a side of her that he – in fact any of them – had never seen before.
    â€œI can understand your position, Jo,” Nug finally said, in the stress of the moment using