“Any others? Dr. Kerns?” Alex could see that Matt had something he wanted to share with the group.

“There’s a third indicator as well. Though we crossed paths several times, I don’t think that Hunahpu came down the river the way we did. We know from the near-surface caves that at least one of the brothers returned. If we find any carvings or glyphs indicating the place he made his ascent then it’s definitely the right cave. Or at least it was ten thousand years ago.”

“OK, good. If we find one of the tunnels with two of the indicators you mentioned then the chances are high it’s the one we need. Tank, give me some density readings starting from our present position in a two-mile grid search. Everyone else, we’ve got about ten more minutes of rest time before we need to push on.”

Mumbling to himself, Silex focused on Alex’s back with a look of such venomous intent it almost sent tangible waves of loathing across the cave floor. “You’ve forgotten who’s in charge, you grunt. This is mutiny. Just want the applause and the girl. Nice day’s work, glory-boy. Well, you aren’t going to hobble me and leave me for the spider crabs.” While the main group was huddled at the mouth of their small cave ledge, Silex reached into the uncovered grave mound of the fallen warrior. He tested the blade against his hand and finding it still intact he slipped it into his belt pouch. He mumbled once again to himself. “You just wait, you just wait.”

After a few minutes Tank was able to report that one of the larger caves, about a mile and a half to their west, was showing air movement in a single direction. Warmer air was being sucked in at a rate of about five knots—not significant, but enough to indicate a pretty good updraught.

“Temperature change?” enquired Alex.

“None I can detect, but as we expected this could simply be because of the constant warm air being drawn through the tunnel,” replied Tank.

Alex looked towards the large cave opening that Tank had indicated—it was not the easiest cave to get to. There was a section, about 200 feet in length, where there was no beach; the water came right to the cliff wall. They would have to either scale the rock face, or wade through the shallows—if they were shallows. He didn’t think the team would relish the idea of swimming in that water or even wading through shallows, given Mike and Takeda’s fate.