“What lost city?” asked Hamilton, as everyone followed Chase and di Salvo. “Wait, is there something I haven’t been told?”

It took them close to an hour to reach the first of the four potential sites for the city, and another twenty minutes of exploration before it became obvious there was nothing there. What on the aerial photos had seemed like hints of former civilization were, on the ground, revealed as nothing more than exposed rocks, fallen trees and tricks of the light.

“Oh well, can’t expect to hit it on the first try,” Chase reassured Nina as he took a compass reading and checked his map. Beneath the trees, getting line of sight on a GPS satellite was problematic at best. “Still got three more to go.”

“How far away’s the next site?” she asked.

Chase pointed. “Mile or so that way. If we shift, we might have time to check out the third site before we go back to the boat. Or we could just head back now. I bet Julio’s got something nice in the oven for us…”

Nina smiled. “Tempting, but no.”

“Tchah. Okay,” he said, raising his voice, “everyone, we’re moving out!”

The group reassembled and set off behind di Salvo and Chase. Di Salvo slung his rifle over one shoulder and wielded a machete. After about ten minutes, the undergrowth thinned out noticeably. Occasionally he swung the blade to hack at some obstructing branch, but most of the time the route was clear, the party able to move at a faster pace than before.

“Yeah, I thought this seemed a bit too good to be natural,” Chase said to him.

“What do you mean?” Nina asked. She and Kari were following ten feet behind, heeding his warning not to bunch up.

“We’re on a path. That’s why we don’t need to cut through much.” He indicated the thicker vegetation off to each side.

Nina looked around warily for any signs of movement. “So we might run into the Indians coming the other way?”

“Christ, I hope not. I don’t want to miss my dinner!”

They kept moving through the jungle, ducking under low branches. The mist was still drifting between the trees, reducing visibility to at most fifty feet even when the view wasn’t blocked by vegetation. Suddenly di Salvo stopped, holding up a warning hand for everyone else to do the same. “Footprint,” he said, crouching.

Chase squatted next to him. “How old?”

“Less than a day. Definitely an Indian.”

“How can you tell?” Nina asked. She could just about make out the faint outline of a bare foot in the dirt and fallen leaves.

“The toes are splayed, from walking barefoot all the time.” Di Salvo stood and squinted through the mist. “Even if we don’t find your lost city, this is still a previously uncontacted tribe. Another reason for the loggers and farmers to hate my guts.”

“No, this is incredible!” said Hamilton, pushing past Nina and Kari. “We really will be the first people to make contact with this tribe! Once we establish peaceful communication, there’s so much we’ll be able to learn from them-”

A spearhead burst through the front of Hamilton ’s chest, his bright red shirt darkening with blood.

Nina screamed. Hamilton ’s eyes widened in shock as he sagged to his knees. Then he keeled over, the wooden shaft of the spear protruding over four feet out of his back.

Chase and Castille whipped up their rifles and aimed in the direction from which the spear had come. Kari grabbed Nina and pushed her to the ground as she lifted her own gun.

An arrow hit di Salvo in his right arm, the carved obsidian head slicing deep into his bicep. He dropped his machete, yelling in agony as he stumbled back and fell over Hamilton ’s body.

At the same moment, something whirled through the air and cracked against Chase’s head-then wrapped around it.

A bola.

Chase staggered and dropped to the ground, clutching at the weighted cords digging into his flesh.

Behind her, Nina heard Castille let out a choking gasp. Another bola had caught him around the neck, squeezing his throat with the grip of a maniac.

Philby threw himself flat on the ground next to Kari and Nina. Another spear flew overhead, passing barely a foot above them.

Kari desperately looked for a target-but saw nothing except trees and mist.

Fleeting glimpses of shapes darted between the towering trunks. She brought the gun around, tracking one of the ghostly figures-

Crack!

Something hit her on the back of her head. Not a bola, not even a spear. The crudest of all weapons, just a rock-but thrown with great precision and force. It wasn’t enough to knock her out, but it dropped her to the muddy ground, stunned and disoriented.

The rifle fell from her hands. Nina stared at it for a moment, frozen by fear. Then she reached for it.

But too late.

Where a second before there had been nothing but jungle, now there were people, springing into view as if they had been spat out of the ground.

Dark hair, dark skin, faces fierce behind their primitive but deadly weapons.

All of them aimed at her.

THIRTEEN

Nina hardly dared breathe.

The Indians closed in, treading silently over the moist earth. Ahead, Chase groaned. She could still hear Castille choking.

The nearest Indian was now barely ten feet away, a black-tipped spear held unwaveringly in his hand, poised to strike.

Nina glanced at Kari’s gun… then looked away. Instead, she very slowly slipped her pack off her back, opening the top flap.

“What are you doing?” hissed Philby. “Get the gun! They’re going to kill us!”

She ignored him, her eyes fixed on the man with the spear. Six feet away now. Another couple of steps and he would be able to impale her without the spear even leaving his hand.

Her fingers touched soft cloth wrapped around heavy metal. Still not taking her eyes off the Indian, she slipped the sextant arm out of the pack, letting the cloth fall away. Bowing her head in an unmistakable gesture of submission, she held up the orichalcum bar, offering it to him.

Silence.

She raised her eyes slightly, seeing the man’s feet now barely a yard away. Splayed toes, the analytical part of her mind noted pointlessly. If he was going to kill her, it would be within the next few seconds…

Instead, he excitedly shouted something, the language completely foreign. One of the other Indians replied, sounding puzzled. Languages varied, but emotional tones were a human constant anywhere in the world.

He snatched the bar from Nina’s hands. She flinched as the spear tip entered her field of vision, inches away. The Indians closed in and she was pulled roughly to her feet. At least twelve men now stood in a ragged circle around her. The other members of the group were likewise hauled upright. Kari gasped in pain, her eyes still unfocused, and di Salvo let out a strangled growl of agony as the Indians grabbed his injured arm.

They knew what guns were, Nina realized. Clearly they’d had enough contact with the outside world to recognize modern weapons. The rifles were quickly whisked away, and Chase and Castille were deprived of their sidearms before the bola cords around their heads were unwound.

“Nina! Kari!” Chase called. “Are you okay?” An Indian held the tip of an obsidian knife to his neck. Chase glowered at him, but fell silent.

“Kari’s hurt,” Nina said.

“No, I’m okay,” Kari told her woozily. “What happened?”

“I gave them the artifact.”

That brought Kari’s eyes back into focus, staring in disbelief at Nina. “What?”

“I think it saved our lives. Look.”

Kari followed her nod, seeing one of the Indians holding the sextant arm up to the light, examining it almost with reverence. The others looked on with similar astonishment, occasionally glancing suspiciously at their captives as they exchanged questions.