[Black Coral — Ruins — 8:20 AM]
Jessica hadn't slept.
Or she had slept — two hours in the boat, with her notebook open on her chest and her pen still in her hand when the dawn light reached the island. What she had done was not separate herself from the ruins since the team had found them the night before.
When the rest came ashore in the morning, Jessica was already inside, measuring the second wall.
"When did you get here?" asked Alex from the threshold.
"Before dawn." Without looking up. "Light changes what can be read in the seals. I wanted to see how they responded to first light."
"And?"
"The seals don't change with light." Jessica measuring the wall with her arm extended — without instruments, using the relative comparison method she used when she had nothing else. "But the stone does. The composition has something that absorbs sunlight in the early hours and releases it slowly throughout the day." A pause. "Which means the ruins are designed to be visible in the dark."
