Bones in the Sand by Julie Steimle (books to read to get smarter txt) 📕

their associate near the hill, watching with well-rewarded anticipation.

The college students who worked the burial site all rose up from their campfire and peered over to where the noise had come from.

"A hollow mound?" the redheaded senior, Kyle, muttered.

The girl next to him grinned and glanced at the others around her. "Do you know what this means?"

The others blinked and shrugged.

"We'll be famous!" She grinned gleefully.

A couple of her classmates moaned, shaking their heads.

"Not if the FBI collects all the stuff and stores it away in Area 51," a dark-haired junior remarked. He slumped back to his camp chair. "We'll be lucky anyone knows about this if it really is aliens."

A few agreeing voices murmured. More of them sat down. Kyle shook his head and followed.

 

"So, they know nothing about this yet?" Sicamore whispered to Powell as Agent Palmer walked over to them from the mound.

"Simms and Hayworth have been tailing them all week. From what he has told me, both of them have been occupied with school and some tall kid's social problems. He says Zormna has made a kind of project out of it," Agent Powell replied.

"How philanthropic." Agent Sicamore wryly smirked. "Who'd have thought she had only just ruined an entire investigation for us and holds the entire U.S. defense plan against her people in her hands."

Agent Powell furrowed his brow. "I thought the boy was doing that?"

Agent Sicamore nodded. "Him too. Him too. But he is doing it for her. That, I am sure of."

"Sir, Agent Sicamore, you have to see this." Agent Palmer had reached them and was breathing rather excitedly.

They followed him to the mound.

"Our sonar not only found that the mound is hollow, but it also is metal and not too deep," he said, still breathing hard from his excitement.

"How long do you think it will take for us to dig it out?" Agent Sicamore asked, trying to keep pace with Palmer's stride.

Agent Palmer breathed hard. "I'm not sure. A week. Maybe two."

Agent Sicamore nodded.

"Ok." He looked back at Powell and said, "Get a team to help unearth this monster. We need it up and out before those two get information from their spies and steal it from us."

Agent Powell nodded and marched back over the hill to their trailer.

"I hope this works," Sicamore murmured.

"I hope this works," Zormna murmured to herself. Her hands were sweating. She had been standing outside the gym waiting for Joseph to come out. He played basketball in the last hour, and Zormna had ditched her hour of Driver's Ed. They were showing the road rage films where people's brains are splattered on the asphalt, something she objected to right off and had begged to be excused. Besides, she already knew how to drive.

Several tall lanky jocks came out, passing Zormna and grinning as they walked from the gym to the locker room. Joseph was one of the last.

"Joseph," Zormna called to him.

He took one look and rolled his eyes. Joseph quickened his pace to get away.

"Oh, no you don't," Zormna growled. She sprinted through the line, and grabbed hold of Joseph's arm. She jerked on it for him to follow.

"Why don't you leave me alone?" The tall lanky boy struggled against the five-foot-tall cheerleader, surprised at her strength.

Zormna scowled at him. "Listen, Joseph. You need help. Now you can come with me and learn it the easy way, or you can come with me and learn it the hard way."

He rolled his eyes and continued on his way back to the locker room. The entire line of boys was already in the locker room. He only had ten minutes to dress before the last bell. Before he could escape, Zormna leapt on top of him. Shoving him hard to the ground, she pinned him in such a way that left him in pain and utter surprise... while the rest of the team snickered as they passed by. Joseph wasn't a popular boy, even with his own teammates.

"I'm a soldier, you moron. I want to help you," she hissed into his ear, pinching a nerve and holding him tight.

Then she let him go.

Joseph looked up at her, achy and hurt from being called a moron - especially since he wasn't as good of a student as Zormna. He only got C's.

"What do you want from me?" he asked, rubbing his neck where she had pinched him.

Zormna sat back on the gym floor. "I used to be just like you, scared of the bullies and awkward. If you want, I can help you."

Joseph rolled his eyes. He tried to stand up.

"Or I can get Jeff to help you," Zormna added, watching him.

Joseph paused. He looked down at her while rising. "You can?"

Realizing Jeff was right, that Joseph wouldn't take help from a girl, but from a boy he admired...maybe - Zormna smiled and nodded, getting up. "He'd do it."

Joseph glanced back to the locker room and then down at Zormna. "Ok. When?"

Thinking about it, Zormna shrugged. "I don't know, tomorrow maybe? I have to talk to him to set it up."

Joseph nodded. He turned to go inside the locker room, glancing back once at the famously-hotheaded cheerleader who watched him leave.

Once he was gone, Zormna walked back across the snow covered red top, grinning to herself.

"What?" Jeff exclaimed, staring at Zormna over a piece of chocolate cream pie she had given him at the burger place where she worked. "You actually convinced Joe Pearson into taking self-defense lessons from you?"

Zormna shrugged and bit her lip. "Actually, he thinks he is taking them from you."

"Oh, no," Jeff stood up from his vinyl seat and sliding out of the booth, shaking his head. "I knew it was fishy when you started giving me pie, but this...." He shook his head again, "What are you going to do? Demonstrate how easy it is for you to beat up the state champ wrestler? Please, I have been humiliated enough."

Zormna frowned at him, tugging back the strands of hair into the hat she had to wear at work.

"No, Jafarr. It's not that," she said, watching him collect his jacket and pick up the pie to take it with him. He never could quite say no to pie, even if he would refuse the rest. She had hoped it would sweeten the deal.

"Then what? What do you plan to do?" He hesitated, waiting.

Sighing, she said, "I just want you to teach him some defense moves. Not me, ok?" Zormna shrugged reluctantly. "You were right. Even after he saw I could take him down, he still wouldn't let me give him lessons." She paused, peeking up at him. "So will you?"

Jeff sighed. Then he glanced at the pie. "You didn't make this, right?"

Zormna laughed, shaking her head. "Me? Cook? I'm only a waitress here."

He chuckled, giving in. "Ok, I'll do it. When do you want us to meet together?"

Smiling, Zormna handed Jeff a plastic fork. "Tomorrow, after school."

"After wrestling?" he asked, knowing they would both be busy right after school.

Zormna nodded.

Jeff grinned and took the fork, breaking off a sizeable piece of the pie. He nodded and smiled. "Good pie."

The hollow rock mound was harder to dig through than they thought. Actual cement, plastered together with old plants and pulp, lay under the sediments of rock. It was a laborious task to break into. It took two days before they could clear out even a small fraction of the cement and reach the smooth metal - that is, without damaging the object underneath. But once they finally reached the metal, they took another ultrasound reading of the interior of the cabin.

"What do you see?" Professor Pratte anxiously paced behind the three technicians brought in by the FBI for the excavation.

"Look for yourself," one of them said.

The FBI were pleased at how cooperative Professor Pratte was with them, and how helpful he was in the dig itself. His students had nearly cleared off the burial site. They were now investigating the bones and the artifacts they had unearthed. The bones of the helmeted man were remarkable. In fact, most of the human remains proved to be interesting. The majority of the skeletons had broken bones, most of which was evidence at the cause of their deaths. All of it was akin to breakage from something like a plane crash. Despite that, they were all well laid out, which proved that there were a number of survivors.

Professor Pratte stared at the screen to their sonar. From what he saw, the sonar exposed a large cabin with several benches, like a minivan, and a forward area that must have been the pilot and copilot's seat. The sight of it just made his heart giddy.

"It's actually a ship. A real space ship." He could not stop smiling.

Joseph waited outside the gym door. He had watched the entire wrestling team walk back to the locker rooms, and the cheer squad go also. Michelle Clay and her entourage tossed rude remarks toward him when they passed through their doors, but Zormna wasn't one of their company.

"Well, Joseph, are we going to have to wait all day?" Zormna's voice came from the gym door.

He flushed and peered in to see if Jeff really was around. At first he didn't see him. His ears started to burn. But just as he turned, he heard Jeff's voice call out near the wall beyond the door.

"Leaving already, Joe?"

Joseph blushed, turning back around. He saw Jeff pull on his Pennington wrestling tee shirt and slip off the head padding.

Zormna smirked then walked over to the bleachers to pick up the leather jacket a biker had given her last year. "I'll just go change," she said, passing by him through the gym door.

Once she had left, Joseph walked across the room, still embarrassed.

"You know, you don't have to do this," Joseph said to Jeff, red in the ears.

Jeff smirked with a peek to the doorway. "And have Zormna on my back? No way. Besides, you could use the help."

Blushing more, Joseph did not meet Jeff's eyes.

Motioning with his hand, "C'mere." Jeff walked into the center of the room.

Joseph followed him.

"Ok, first thing's first. Self-defense only works when you don't make yourself a target." Jeff stood back and looking at him.

"Too late for that," Joseph murmured, averting his gaze. His shoulders slumped, his hands shoving into his pockets.

"Yeah." Jeff smirked. "But you can improve on that. First off, stop slouching. You're tall. Take advantage of that."

Joseph stood a little straighter.

"Second, don't let people intimidate you. People like Bradley Hershott and Deacon Wilks thrive on watching people quiver. Meet their eye. Don't back down," Jeff explained. "Look at Darren Asher. He doesn't cower to them anymore, and they don't bother him anymore."

Joseph nearly laughed, peeking at Jeff, his eyes raking in Jeff's pale skin and his scars. "Yeah, I noticed. What is with you and him anyway? I thought Darren was the school's ultimate geek. How come he's hanging with you and your friends now?"

"Yeah, well." Jeff chucked and nodded, shrugging. "That's all Zormna's doing. And if you know Zormna, no one is going to cross her or anyone she considers a friend."

Joseph shook his head. He looked out to where Zormna had gone. "Well, that girl is a piece of work. How can you stand it? I heard she beat you last year at the school Olympics, something like she pinned you in the tug of war pit."

Jeff's face went embarrassingly red. He gazed towards the gym ceiling. "Well, Zormna's a character all right. But she was raised in a military school so...." He shook his head. "Ok, we're getting sidetracked. Point three. If someone does attack you, know their vulnerable points."

With a nod, Joseph could understand why Jeff didn't want to talk about it.

Zormna entered the room and stood at the door, watching Jeff show Joseph some basic moves, such as going for the throat, attacking the groin, and giving someone a bloody nose. She folded her arms, listening silently.

"Many guys break down and cry when they see