According to the lidar scans, they had just crossed into a large plaza that was surrounded on three sides by geometric mounds and terraces. From the scans, one could presume that, centuries earlier, the area had been an ancient settlement filled with houses, plazas, and temples, not to mention hundreds, or even thousands, of inhabitants. But on the ground, it was impossible to tell. The area didn’t look any different from the quarter mile of jungle they’d just trudged through. It was the same pandemonium of leaves, vines, trees, ferns, bushes, and more leaves.

The ancient ruins were entirely obscured by the jungle.

“Okay,” Holland said, glancing down at his watch. “It’s sixteen fifteen. We’re leaving here at seventeen hundred sharp. That’s forty-five minutes. Everyone stay within thirty meters of here.”

The group fanned out.

“Call over the walkies if you find anything,” Roth said.

≈

It’d been nearly half an hour, and so far, the walkie-talkies had remained quiet. It appeared everyone was having the same luck as Andy. But there were still fifteen minutes left. Plenty of time for Andy to be the first to discover solid proof of an ancient civilization. Plenty of time for him to be the one to hit the black button on the side of the yellow walkie-talkie and shout, “I found something! I found something!” and have everyone come running and have his discovery caught on film.

Andy pushed aside a large grouping of vines with his gloved hand. He was looking for anything that appeared even remotely artificial, anything that could have been shaped by human hands. At the same time, he was keeping a watchful eye out for anything slithering on the ground, spinning a web, or looking to drag him back to its lair.

He noticed an odd linear depression in the ground. He knelt down, brushed aside several pockets of fallen leaves, and pulled a five-inch hand trowel from his backpack. He spent the next minute digging down six inches, but all he revealed was the large earthworm he’d murdered when digging down.

The canopy overhead shook, and Andy glanced upward. A moment later, several leaves and a small branch fell near Andy’s feet.

“The storm is blowing in faster than I expected,” Holland’s voice came through the walkie-talkie. “Everybody get back here now.”

Covering his head from the onslaught of any more falling debris, Andy wound his way back the twenty meters he’d ventured to where the others had gathered.

“Find anything?” Buxton asked.

Andy shook his head. “Nope.”

“Yeah, us neither.”

Over the next minute, Roth, the camera crew, and Cala returned.

Buxton asked each of them if they’d found anything.

Cala nodded at Roth and said, “We located one of the earthen mounds from the lidar. Dug down a bit. Pretty sure it’s natural. Nothing about it suggested it had been shaped by human hands.”

“Where’s Farah?” Holland asked.

Everyone shook their heads.