“Impossible,” Leo Gries says. “You’re telling me that we may have found the body of someone that historians and governments have spent centuries looking for, just like that?”

“Why not? It’s a known fact that Cortes went missing in the Godseye.” Hemslock points a finger at the large cave in the distance. “Still don’t believe the legends after everything, Leo? Didn’t you come to this island hoping for the impossible? Don’t you want to figure out what happened to your wife?”

Leo steps back, his face turning red. “Don’t bring my wife into this.”

Hemslock lifts his hands. “Hey, whoa. No offense meant. But you’re lying to yourself if that isn’t what you’re here for. Like that isn’t the reason you’re producing this show with me. And what you’re here for closely aligns with what I’m here for. I want to solve all the mysterious deaths on this island and throw it back at the naysayers who tried to sabotage my career. And you get your answer when I get mine.”

Leo stares back at him, troubled.

“That sinkhole appeared for a reason. This island wants you here. It wants us to solve its mystery as much as we do, tell the world its story.” Reuben Hemslock turns to me. “You’re the Kisapmata expert. You agree, right?”

I stare back at him. “The Diwata doesn’t like people on His island.”

“Why not? Doesn’t it need three more deaths to gain back its power, or so the curse goes?”

“He will take more than three lives the longer you all stay.”

It feels like the crew is watching us, holding their breaths, waiting for the actor to respond to my lack of courtesy. A frown briefly mars Hemslock’s face, but then it broadens into a wide smile.

“I like you,” he says. “You’ve got guts. Hear that, Leo? We better not stay too long. Time to crack this case wide open.”

“I want as many DNA samples from this thing as you can get,” Armani calls out, his good humor restored. “Scrape all the flesh off the body you can, send it to Marvin’s team ASAP. I want to know who this man is! If you’re right about this, Rube, then we’re one step closer to the treasure they say is buried here!”

“It would be easier if we could exhume the corpse,” someone from the scientific team says. “If it’s not too brittle. Would be fascinating to put it through an MRI scan, see if there’re any more secrets we can find within it.”

“Can we stick it back down there once you’re done, though? I want more for our drone work.”

“Not if the tree’s fused to it, as Mr. Hemslock believes. But we can try.”

That Hemslock escaped the sinkhole unscathed has boosted morale; soon other teams descend into the pit. Leo Gries remains by the workstation, staring in disbelief as Straw Hat, the friendly editor, begins reviewing the footage they’ve acquired so far. “I don’t believe it,” he mutters from time to time, though no one is paying him any attention.