“Yup.” She nodded, smiling. “And my studies lead me to believe there’s a body of water bigger than all of the great lakes combined – and all right under our feet, well, their feet. And all we need to do is prove it’s there, and more importantly, prove it can be accessed.” She grinned. “So, someone needs to go in and take a look.”

Greg paced away for a moment. “Cate, your grandfather disappeared around those parts didn’t he?”

“Oh yeah, long time ago,” she said distractedly as she fiddled with the cliff-face images.

“Ah, and now you seem to be in the same area, like you’re looking for him.” He stopped pacing and faced her.

“No; just a coincidence is all.” Cate turned slowly in her seat.

“You know, the scientific community believes that water might be suspended within the geology, caught up in the rock, like some sort of deep earth sponge.” He tilted his head. “It’d be primordial soup, thick, primordial soup.”

“Movile Cave.” She raised her eyebrows.

“Huh?” Greg’s mouth twitched into a smile. “Ah, Romania.” He nodded. “You think it’s something like that?”

“Maybe. Why not?” She tilted her head. “The Movile was only discovered in 1986. Cut off from the outside world for nearly six million years. Had a whole ecosystem of unique species that had evolved in there… and not just blind shrimp, but big things like cave spiders the size of your hand.”

“Ooh, they sound like fun.” He grinned.

She turned back to her screen. “I just need more data.” She leaned in closer to her screen, elbows on the desk. “I’ve got an old pal up there who owes me a favor or two. We can grab a quick peek of the opening in the cliff wall without getting our hands dirty.” She spoke over her shoulder. “No mess, no fuss. Sound like a plan?”

“Sure… then what?”

“Then, if there’s something interesting there, we get approval for a full expedition.” She held out her hands, shoulders hiked. “See? Easy as A-B-C.”

Greg gave her a broad smile. “You know me; I’m all for doing a little preplanning before jumping right in and doing something expensive, career ending, or just plain dumb.”

She laughed softly. “Always good to have you onboard, Mr Jamison.”

*   *   *

Three days later, Cate, Greg, and Abigail Burke, a newly minted PHD straight out of the geology department, sat in Cate’s office – their Home Base, as Cate called it. An enormous curved computer screen was center stage, and several computers were set up in a horseshoe shape on the tiered desks before them. They waited on a communication link to be established between Frederick Wan Ling – a friend of Cate’s doing some research on migrating Arctic birds – and their in-house system.