Dig Your Own Hole (3/9) By Joe Hakim

(1/9), (2/9), (3/9), (4/9), (5/9), (6/9), (7/9), (8/9), (9/9).

She began licking it. I kneaded her hair, feeling myself get hard, but I couldn't help but think of her doing this to someone else. I wanted to tell her to stop but it was too late. She looked up at me before taking me into her mouth. My head fell back and all the tension of the day began to evaporate as she set to work. Chris paced up and down the room. "So tell me again what's happened," he said. I had already laid it out, but it was like he couldn't believe what he was hearing, so he needed to be told it again and again in order for it to sink in properly. "Team C, while digging a trench, found what appeared to be a set of corpses.

Some were in coffins, some weren't. But there was quite a few, which means we must have uncovered a burial plot of some kind." "So what does that mean?" he asked. "It means work will have to stop. The bodies will have to exhumed, blessed and then relocated." He stopped and placed his hands on the desk. "And exactly how long will all this take?" "I don't know... a couple of months at least." His face twisted into a pained expression like he'd just found out he'd lost the winning lottery ticket. "That's not good enough, we can't afford it."

He began pacing again before shouting, "For fuck's sake. This is just what those preservation motherfuckers have been waiting for. They'll want the whole area kept for archaeological digs and shite like that. This could completely fuck us up the arse." I didn't know what to say, but then my 'dark-side' emerged. "There is an alternative," I said quietly. Chris stopped pacing and looked at me, his red face bulging. "Go on..." "We could keep it a secret. No formal announcement to the press has been made yet. The only people who know are you, me and the workers on Team C."

Perching himself on the edge of his desk, Chris stroked his chin and then asked, "How do we make sure our discovery doesn't become public?"

"Well, we both know that you and I won't say anything, and if we can arrange for a nice 'bonus' payment for all of Team C, I'm sure they could be made to keep quiet." Chris ran a hand through his thinning hair before continuing. "Do it... do it...make the arrangements, but make sure that you do it right. If any of this gets out then," he shook his head as if to emphasise the gravity of the situation, "then that'll be it." "I'll get on it now," I said as I stood up. Chris put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm trusting you to sort this... don't let me down," he said as he gave me a little squeeze. "Leave it to me."

The Team C lads were sat around in their cabin, smoking rolled cigarettes and guzzling tea. I walked in and went to the back, feeling like a school teacher. Most of the people in Team C were older than me, and I could sense their resentment every time I was in their company. They saw me as nothing more than a suit-wearing upstart with an attitude problem, which was, in some part, true. I cleared my throat to signify that I was about to speak. "So what's going on, then?" asked Geoff, beating me to the post. "Well, we're just going to carry on, fellas," I replied, adjusting my tie, suddenly feeling a bit hot. There was a silence.

Continued...Next Page (4/9)

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