Chohany quickly closed down her computer and turned around to see her boyfriend completely naked.
“Now, what could possibly be on your mind?” she asked.
It was abundantly obvious.
“All mine?”
“You bet.”
“Good. Then it will also be mine when I get back,” Chohany said, brushing past him.
“But?”
“Shower.”
“Okay, but then no more computer,” he replied. “And we’ll have to make it quick. Doc wants to leave soon.”
Anna Chohany had already decided she was going to stay at the base camp.
Twenty-one
The team piled into the Chevy Tahoe for the bumpy off-road ride into town. The first stop was the hardware store. Once loaded up with more supplies, space became much tighter. But it was a short drive to early dinner at Maddhatters Bar.
For a half hour they just drank. The local hangout had a great assortment of craft beer. Then came an hour of potato skins and shrimp appetizers. Compared to their meager cooking around the campfire, it tasted like Wolfgang Puck himself had been in the Glendive kitchen. Over their steak dinner came free-wheeling conversation, made all the looser by the liquor they consumed.
It was late and Kavanaugh was tired, but Gruber was on one of his rants. Kavanaugh wondered if it was the Amaro they were drinking or if the old man was racing against time himself, knowing he was the slower of the two.
“Again. Tell me again.” Martin Gruber demanded.
For weeks on end he believed Gruber was losing control of his faculties. Nonetheless, he responded with the directive drummed into him.
“We have a tremendous responsibility, sir. On one hand, there is chaos. On the other hand, there is order. We help maintain the order.”
“Help? Help?” Gruber shouted.
It was a slip on Kavanaugh’s part.
“We maintain order.”
“Yes! It is never help. We do. We simply do. With determination. Unknown to anyone but those we trust. A sworn duty you have accepted and will faithfully abide as if your life depended upon it.”
Gruber paused for barely a moment. “Because it will.”
Gruber never talked about anyone who left Autem Semita. The Path. Maybe now was the time to press the issue.
“Mr. Gruber, you’ve spoken of the men who preceded you. They held the job…”
“Not a job. Your job is Voyages. Your slips of the tongue are most concerning.”
“You have no need for concern, sir.”
“At this point, I would hope not. Your question?”
Now Kavanaugh was reluctant to ask. He considered another way into the problem, taking himself out of any hypothetical.
“There are, of course, those who must not have lived up to their responsibility. What if that…”
Gruber explained.
“What I don’t get is how the actual record can be denied,” Tom Trent said.
They had returned to one of their first discussions, the age of the earth.
“It’s not like it’s an unsolved mystery for God’s sake.”
“Interesting choice of words,” Katrina Alpert noted.
“Well, yes. For God’s sake…for our sake. We can have our beliefs, but we can’t deny the facts.”
“The relationship is for life,” Gruber said. “Once you are fully committed, you enter a holy marriage.”
“God’s work.” Kavanaugh said.
“Man’s work. We help God stay right where he belongs.”
“It’s still amazing to me that people come with their own set of facts,” Al Jaffe exclaimed.
“They do,” interjected McCauley. “And successfully. Special interest groups have even blocked the distribution of some publications in national parks that support evolution.”
“You have a troubled country,” offered the befuddled Spanish student.
“Conflicted,” Alpert added.
Lobel jumped in. “Who needs a meteor this time? Ignorance could destroy intelligent life on earth.”
“Again, think about your words,” McCauley implored. “Not ignorance. Faith.”
“Supported by?” Lobel shot back.
“Well, that is the point of delineation,” McCauley concluded. “Considering our argument, two deities. Religion and business. Or, better put, the business of religion.”
McCauley passed the conversation to Katrina. “Dr. Alpert, your thoughts?”
The Cambridge professor wasn’t used to this kind of intellectual free-for-all, but her respect for Quinn was growing.
“The world in balance is a better world,” Gruber continued. “There are those who would prefer that civilization as we know it fall apart. We won’t let that happen. We never have.”
“Okay, take Noah’s Ark. And the flood,” Alpert said.
“The Russell Crowe movie?” Trent offered.
“Ah, more the original text,” she added. “But, for the sake of argument, open it up to the millions of species. How would you say Noah got them all on the ark?”
“Good question, people,” McCauley noted. “Stay with this and try to understand, because you will have to stand up to the positions held by others. And you’ll have to do it reasonably and with reason — in your research, in your departments, and certainly, when you go on the road for speaking engagements. Trust me,” he turned to Katrina Alpert. “You have to develop a thick skin and realize not everyone with a different opinion is out to destroy you.”
“Just your credibility,” Tamburro interjected.
“Maybe,” McCauley continued. “So, to Dr. Alpert’s question?”
“Well, he didn’t take two of each species,” Leslie Cohen volunteered. “He took two of each genus. Not every species of dog, but two dogs. Not every kind of ant, but two ants.”
“But creationists claim that man and dinosaurs walked hand in claw,” Lobel said. His reference brought a needed chuckle. “Aside from the fact that they didn’t, how would they have gotten onboard?”
“Can I try this one?” Jaffe asked.
“Go for it,” Katrina replied.
“Well, go to the Bible. There are descriptions of ‘behemoths’ and ‘leviathan” which lived with man from the beginning, and they fit dinosaurs more closely than any other animals.”
“You sound like you support the point of view,” interrupted Lobel.
“Well, in this argument, yes. And if Noah took only one pair of dinosaurs on the ark, it easily explains how and why the others died. They drowned in the flood.”
“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but dinosaurs could be incredibly big,” Tom Trent stated.
“Good point,” Dr. Alpert said. “Dr. McCauley? Care to weigh in?”
She felt confident he’d have the right answer, and he obviously liked the way she had re-framed the discussion.
“Happy to. Actually, as you all know the average dinosaur was no bigger than sheep. That alone makes for an easier boat ride. But even better, what if Noah picked a pair of babies? Their growth spurts were likely to be after they were five or six. So, yes, while some dinosaurs were behemoths, they grew to that size. They weren’t born that way.”
Katrina Alpert smiled. “Hey, would you take a fierce man-eating dog or a puppy on your ship?”
“A puppy,” Cohen easily answered.
“And so would Noah. Puppies and baby dinosaurs.”