Even though good things had been happening in the last few days, it still couldn't be said with full conviction.
In fact, Bua considered what was happening between her and Phinya to be one of those rare events that happened once in a lifetime. Even though she knew deep down that someday it would end, she preferred to wait until that time came to deal with it later.
However, today is not a good day for Bua.
Dr. Busaya finally had time to open and print the results of the dating test on the mummified skull found in the plane crash, which had just been sent by email two hours earlier, after a long wait for the analysis.
The report was printed on an A4 sheet that trembled in her hands. She reread it several times, scanning the paper, while calling the laboratory that had performed the test, which confirmed the same result. The analysis had been repeated three times, following standard procedure: the accuracy was confirmed at ninety-five percent.
It was not old, as Phinya had assumed when looking at the X-ray. The dating results confirmed this. This was not a mummy... In fact, it was a mummy, but not as old as a mummy usually isknown. The analysis performed with the correct equipment and procedures proved it.
Busaya looked at the result once more, for the umpteenth time at that hour. She hurried out of the lab with the report paper in her hands. She walked so fast that, in a few minutes, she was already running towards the fifth floor, where the assistant director's office was. Deep down, she expected her friend to have already arrived; she was in such a hurry that she didn't even knock on the door before entering.
""Phin!"
Phinya is sitting, facing the window, staring out, reflecting on everything that has happened up until that moment. Of course, she's also thinking about the events between her and the person who had just invaded her desk.
The noise make Bua turn around quickly, she stand up and walked towards her.
"What's wrong? Are you missing me already, Buakong? I told you we should go together."
"The lab sent the dating results. See if I got it wrong,”
Bua said, agitated, as she handed the paper to the other, who, frowning, take the sheets to read.
Phinya is silent for a moment, as if she's processing what she read. Her thin eyebrows are completely furrowed.
“I knew it!” Phinya exclaimed.
“You checked if they did the analysis three times, right?”
“Yes, they checked three times. The result is ninety-five percent reliable. They couldn’t determine the age,” Dr. Busaya said.
“Tell me what’s going on?”
"It's not old enough to calculate the age." Phinya replied.
"It's 2023. For the carbon-14 dating method to work, the object needs to be older than 1950, that is, older than seventy-three years."
"So, it's a fake mummy."
"Does it look fake to you?"
Phinya asked, as her eyes remained fixed on the words in the table on the white paper she had just received.
"Not really."
"Exactly."
"And what do we do now?"
"Let’s get the skull back, and then we’ll figure out the next step."
.
Bua was pacing in circles around the stretcher where the skull of the troubled mummy was, for the hundredth time that hour. Finding it at the site of the private plane crash was already strange enough. Now, finding out that this skull was less than seventy years old and could not be considered an ancient relic was even more intriguing. The next question was: what was the true origin of this skull?
