Page 26 of Legend of Scorpio

The statement pursed his lips. “I am pretty sure they have no claim to it.”

“Neither do you, or anyone alive for that matter.”

“It belongs to the Zodiacs,” he stated.

“How can you say that when you don’t even know what it is?”

“You saw the symbols in that ruin.”

“Yeah. And so what? For all we know, some really old Zodiac folks put that object in there to keep it from someone else, meaning it might not have been theirs either.”

“Sage says the fate of the world depends on us finding the missing artifact.”

“We did find it. So, technically, we did our part.”

His turn to sigh. “Don’t you care they stole it? It was your discovery.”

“I do care, but I’m less pissed about the theft than the way the company used me. Not to mention their bullying tactics were uncalled for. Why not tell me they sought a ruin in the glacier? Why did they threaten to shoot me? Why the attempt to abduct me? They didn’t have to be so extreme. I would have told them about the ruin in my next report.”

“And given them the sphere?” he asked.

She pinched her lips.

“Well?”

“I would have told them about it and, yes, most likely handed it over. But”—she hastened to add—“I would have first documented everything I could and relayed that information to some people who would have made sure Cetus couldn’t hide it or keep it. A discovery like that belongs to the world.”

“Why does it sound like you’re not going to help me retrieve it?”

“Because I’m not. I have no legal right to the orb. My contract with them has a clause that states, in simple terms, that finders-keepers doesn’t apply.” Which she’d not thought much of because she’d assumed they meant fossilized remains.

“Sage said?—”

“I really don’t care what Sage says. What I do want is to leave and get back to my life.”

“Do you really think the company will allow that?”

She opened and shut her mouth. “Why wouldn’t they? They got what they wanted.”

“Not entirely. They also wanted you and me.”

“Surely now that they’ve got the sphere, they’ll leave me alone.”

“You’re being naïve,” his harsh rebuke, and while it stung, a part of her understood he probably wasn’t wrong. A company willing to shoot and kidnap wouldn’t just let her walk away.

“You make it sound like my life is over,” she muttered with a sulking lower lip.

“No, but it has changed.”

“Because of you,” she accused. “If you hadn’t shown up?—”

“You would have still found the cave. However, would you have survived it?” he countered.

Thinking of that first trap, probably not.

“Now what? If I can’t go back to my camp in the Antarctic or return home, then where am I supposed to go?”

“Nowhere. You’ll stay here for now.”