Morris did the same, and Tania ordered them out so she, Frank, Andy and Matt could crowd in.

“Like what I saw before.” Andy traced the glyph with his hand.

Matt held up his flashlight, following the indentations over the whorls, dots and lines. “Well, it’s definitely not a fluke of geology.”

Andy blew air from his lips. “I could have told you that, genius.”

Matt shook his head. “It’s probably a picture language, or a talisman, but like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

“It looks a little like Sumerian,” Tania said as she crowded in close to him.

Matt hmm-hmmd as he reached out to touch the symbol. The pain was instantaneous and acute. There was a roar in his ears like that of a train approaching in the subway, and immediately he felt his gorge rise to the back of his throat, burning it with the acid from his belly.

He stepped back and coughed. As if a switch had been thrown, the pain, noise and other sensations vanished.

“Hey, you okay?” Tania grabbed at him, and stared hard into his visor.

“Whoa.” He shook his head. “Weird.” He blinked. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Must have…” He shrugged. “I don’t know.” He smiled at her and squeezed her arm. “Yeah, I’m okay.” He held up his hand and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together; the dirt was mushy between his fingers. “Sumerian, sure, it’s certainly old enough. I mean Sumerian or Egyptian got interesting around five thousand years ago, beating out Minoan and Chinese by like a thousand years. But there were languages long before that; it’s just that they didn’t survive in a written form.”

“Can you read it?” Andy asked.

Matt shook his head. “From one symbol? No way.”

“Hey, I’m glad we brought you.” Andy grinned.

Matt flipped him the bird, it not quite working in the suit’s bulky gloves. He turned. “Can you get a shot?”

“On it.” Tania lifted a small camera, and it flashed several times.

“There’s something else in here.” Andy nudged Matt aside, and lifted his flashlight. He tugged at something in the dirt, teasing it free. “Another shred of material.” He looked around and scoffed. “This far in? That’s freaking impossible.” He handed it to the military woman.

Tania lifted it up in the light. “More shirt.” She looked up. “We DNA-tested the previous sample you found – we confirmed it was definitely on Mr Anderson at some point.”

Frank snorted. “Well it isn’t now, and it didn’t get down here via sedimentation, percolation or even via some sort of drain – way too deep. That leaves it getting in there after the land fell into the sinkhole.”

“And that doesn’t make sense either.” Andy said. “But it’s in there, so let’s follow it.” He lifted his shovel. “The trail of cookie crumbs says: go this way.”

“Wait.” Matt held up his hand with Andy’s shovel poised over the symbol. He would have loved to take an imprint, but he knew it wasn’t possible in the time they had. “Ah, forget it.”