Jed turned sideways on the bench seat as the cramped minibus rumbled through the heart of Cuzco. He’d only managed to sleep a couple of hours during the multiple flights necessary to get from Nashville to this narrow, poorly maintained road in Cuzco. He just didn’t fit on planes very well, and even if he’d had a comfy bed, curiosity about this assignment had his mind spinning and would have kept him up anyway. The curved facade of a massive structure with white-painted concrete pillars and red accents drew his gaze out the left-side windows.

“That’s Estadio Inca Garcilaso de la Vega,” Bex said, butchering the Spanish as she looked up from her DK Eyewitness guidebook. The former combat medic and 18 Delta was one of two female members of Joshua Bravo, and she was borderline giddy today. “It seats forty-two thousand and is the home to the Sportivo Cienciano football club. . . . Whoa, it says here that the Cienciano team was founded in 1901.”

“Seriously, Bex, how did you have time to buy that guidebook?” Jed said, looking at her.

“Oh, I didn’t. I already had it. I love to travel. I absolutely love it. Visiting Peru, and Machu Picchu specifically, has been on my bucket list for a loooong time,” she said, drawing out the word for extra emphasis.

Jed glanced at Nisha, who sat behind Bex and was grinning at her teammate. There was something magical about seeing kidlike excitement in adults, and they both felt it.

“Me too,” Nisha said as she gathered her shoulder-length onyx hair into a stubby ponytail. “I want to step foot on every continent and meet as many different kinds of people on this earth as possible before my ticket gets punched.”

Jed nodded at the sentiment and turned to Eli, the final member of their ISR team. “What about you, Eli? Do you like traveling?”

The veteran Shepherd and Florida native shrugged. “Not really. It’s kinda a hassle. Edgewater’s got everything I need—good fishing, Dustin’s Bar-B-Q, and Daytona Beach. Other than Nashville, that’s the only place I really care to be .”

“That’s a very Eli thing to say,” Bex said.

“Just being honest,” Eli said. “But hey, Bex, knock yourself out, keep reading. I’m happy to hear anything you wanna tell me about this place.”

“Well,” Bex said happily, having been given free rein to geek out, “according to this, Cuzco was founded in 1100 AD by Manco Capac, the first Incan ruler. It became the capital city of the empire, and they believed spiritual lines of power, or ceques, radiated out from here. Oh, and here’s a fun fact: it says that the Incans considered Cuzco to be ‘the navel of the world.’”

“Hold on,” Eli said with a chuckle. “You’re telling me this place is the Earth’s belly button?”

“Apparently,” Bex said.

“So if we’re inside it, what does that make us?” Nisha said.

“Belly button lint?” Jed offered.