"I have no bloody clue about American newspapers," Lara complained.

"You got the previous seventeen questions right, stop griping," Noah pointed out. "Just name a paper and get on with it." Noah's irritation was probably largely due to the fact that Lara, Connie and Julian were winning by a large margin.

"The New York Times."

Brian shook his head, putting down the card. "USA Today."

Lara shot Noah a playful look which melted his chagrin into a smile. "Told you so."

Aricia rolled the dice.

Connie picked up a card for her. "What was the first feature-film trilogy to be shot concurrently with the same cast?"

Aricia seemed to be caught by surprise. "I'm not good with movies. Godfather?"

Connie shook her head. "Lord of The Rings," commented Brian, and Connie shot him an appreciative look. "That's right."

Ben could successfully translate 'alectophobic' as 'afraid of chickens', but eventually they could not catch up to Lara's team. They won by a mile, and Lara high-fived Julian and Connie.

"Good work, Croft," Julian commented before heading to the kitchenette area to clean the dishes.

"I have one more question," Ben said, eyeing Lara with a strange look in his eyes.

Lara leaned forward over the table. "Go ahead."

"I was just wondering if Lara could name the constellation after which the most notable cathedrals in France were modeled?"

Lara looked puzzled. "What has that got to do with anything?"

"I heard you telling someone on the phone you did not believe in ancient astronauts. It seems that you do not know much about the associated mythology concerning, for instance, the reasons why there is so much evidence of medieval and even ancient cultures having access to astronomical facts only revealed by science during the 20th century."

Brian looked surprised, and slightly irritated at his mention of the subject.

"You heard right. I don't support the theory." Lara crossed her arms on her chest. She did not like where this was heading.

"Then, I wonder if the revered dr Croft believes in coincidence?"

"I do." Lara tried to sound as honest as she could. She could not decide what sort of approach would be the most suitable for her to select – to express no interest in the subject matter at all, or dismiss Ben's dear theory as esoteric bollocks. She had no faith that the rest of the team could be reassured that she was there just for an idle holiday. They knew her by reputation and if they didn't worry that she wanted to be a part of the discovery they were either amazingly naïve or somewhat stupid. Lara decided it was best to play the science card. "I do not believe all great cultures that disappeared were the disciples of stellar travelers. Daeniken, the poster boy of this figment of imagination you call a theory has admitted to forging some of his evidence. That's enough for me"

Ben looked exasperated. In Lara's eyes he was the spitting image of a typical fanatic – an isolationist who felt it necessary to impose his ideas on anyone willing to listen or argue. "So one stale apple spoils the rest and that's it? Daeniken is not the only one in support of the theory. Are you familiar with Zecharia Sitchin?"

Connie looked concerned. "Sitchin is not an archaeologist, and he never used archaeological evidence in support of his views."

Ben was unfazed by this. "Sitchin was the first one to offer a complete explanation of the astronauts' behaviour."

"Care to enlighten me?" Lara's expression was hard. Julian was watching her carefully from a few feet away.

"It all makes perfect sense. They did not allow humans to view them unless they'd cleansed themselves first – to protect the visitors from earth microbes. Also, they would've probably looked very frightening to the ancient dwellers. Landing on mountaintops conserved energy and protected them from humans. Human sacrifices were common at all the central sites with traces of alien influences; such practice is always associated with great tragedy – such as these visitors leaving. The humans would've been desperate to get these visitors back. It all makes so good sense – including the ark of the Covenant, everything. That, by the way, was probably used as a means to communicate with the visitors from a distance."

Lara tried to look neutral but couldn't hide her amusement. "Fable well told. Where's the evidence then?" Some of Daeniken's original notions had been quite intriguing, but Ben's version was nothing short of science fiction.

"Every major ancient culture featured gateways to heaven in their biggest structures: the Israelites had As-Sakhra, the Egyptians did this in all their main pyramids: shafts leading into space. Teotihuacan has a similar pyramid design, the Torreon at the Macchu Picchu as well."

"That proves nothing. They could've well been used for air vents for the construction workers or as some sort of astronomical observation points."

"True. But why? How do you explain all these cultures' extreme-level infatuation with the night sky?"

"That's not difficult to understand. The sky is vast, limitless – a dark contrast to the security these people tried to build around themselves in their cities and villages. And you can't build a fence in the sky and claim it as your territory, which you can easily do on a mountaintop or in the desert."

"Why are there astronaut-like figures in all the major cultures, depicted at the holy sites?"

"All these theories depend on the notion of prehistoric people as a bunch of incompetent, forgetful savages who couldn't do anything for themselves. It would be highly unlikely that every great culture could've been guided by aliens. Maybe one or two could have, in theory. Also, Daeniken and his lot just never considered the relationship between the natives' religion

"Then how do you explain the ever-present virgin birth myth found in most sacral texts including the Bible?"

"People want miracles, and that's always a good story. And not too complicated to come up with. It's quite logical that gods would not have to obey the biological rules of messy lovemaking and even messier birth."

"You're just banalizing it all, aren't you?" Ben looked almost furious.

Even Connie seemed surprisingly irritated at her strong views. She wouldn't have taken her for a believer. Wasn't Connie supposed to be in this all just for her interest in the anthropological side of the cenotes – the sacrifices? "What about the Dropas?" she asked.

"Excellent point," Concluded Ben.

Brian was simply listening and watching Lara. Julian was drying the glasses but Lara realized he was listening as intently as Brian. Aricia looked rather nonplussed by it all.

"The Dropas?" Lara asked. Now this was something new.

Connie leaned back into the sofa. "Beijing University did some excavations in the Baran Kara Ula region of the Himalayas awhile ago. They found what seemed to be artificially carved tunnels with complex structures, underground storerooms – and a burial chamber. Lying inside they found the mummified remains of two individuals measuring little more than four feet. They had been very frail and with disproportionately large skulls."

Lara remained silent for a moment, images from her trip to Area 51 floating to memory. Nevermind them, she had to keep up with her alleged skepticism. "And the mummies have since mysteriously disappeared, I fathom. That's no less crap than the claim that the Nazca lines are runways for UFOs."

Ben looked like he was at a loss of words. Connie's face was nearly expressionless all but for a hint of indignancy.

Suddenly, Ben turned to Brian.

"Brian, bring the manuscripts."

"But we agreed that she wouldn't…"

Ben turned to face him. "Look, she doesn't even believe this 'crap' as she so eloquently put it. So what's the harm? I just want to ask her what sort of explanation she could possibly cook up for the Mayans to go through such trouble to hide just an old, rusty warrior helmet."

Lara remained silent. If this was how she was going to get to see the manuscript replicas through which they had found the clues to the helmet's location, then she would not reveal all her cards just yet.

Six pairs of eyes were locked onto Lara, as she tried to hide her confusion and bewilderment. In front of her, in the dim light of the kitchen area lamp, lay a formidable collection of engraving prints, maps, photographs and photocopies of ancient stelae texts. Some of them came from Uxmal, some from the other parts of the Quintana Roo district, but most were from Muyil pyramids and temples.

Putting this set together had been an immense feat, one that should, according to Brian, be attributed to Aricia.

Some of the images were just parts of Ben's substantial evidence, but nonetheless suggested that there perhaps had been something strange at work during the Muyil era. This was evidence beyond Daeniken's feeble attempts. Series of very factual inscriptions depicted the last king of Muyil and Uxmal giving away his crown, replacing it with a strange, squarish headdress which completely covered his head. Then he was seen in his burial dress, the helmet carried by priests. Dozens of bodies lay at their feet, and in the background, even though the pictoral language was rather ceremonial, a sobering sight: villagers pierced by spears, entrails hanging.

Gods from high above were witnessing the ceremony with angry expressions, and some of the priests were raising their hands in a desperate, inviting gesture. Lara marveled at the expressive force of the images: they were like a testament of a complete culture in its death throes, desperate to leave some sort of remnant of themselves behind.

The pictures were probably in a mixed order, since the next images depicted tall gods with the strangely shaped helmets walking the earth with villagers shielding their eyes and priests falling at their feet. Behind them, strange means of transport stood on four wheels.

This was no science fiction. A part of Lara was telling her pictures like these could easily be faked, and reasoned that was the reason why they hadn't gone public with it all. "Where have you gotten these?" she half-gasped, half spoke.

Julian was still by the kitchen sink, looking strangely unaffected. Connie was leaning onto the doorframe. "It's just a matter of looking for the right things. This came from a broken pillar. I put the images together with Arie. The pillar was in a thousand pieces, as though someone had wanted to make sure it was going to be difficult to put it all together. I guess the Mayans decided this was not a story to be remembered after all. Maybe they realized it was the end and wanted to give the impression it was their own making. Nothing's as strong as human pride. Perhaps they were even angry at the visitors for leaving."

Lara leafed through the pile of documents. Modern satellite images lay superimposed on temple wall engravings, pointing to perhaps a four-square mile area in the nearby jungle.

She tore herself away from it all, turning her gaze to Ben. "Still, it's your crusade, not mine." She left the room, furious at the fact that she couldn't just light a match and make the whole pile of papers a bonfire.

These people were like moths, curious and self-centered enough to fly into the fire and get burned to cinder in the process. She feared the power of these images, feared what such a discovery would mean to her, to them, to everyone.

Lara was a firm believer in the saying that those who did not wish to know their history were doomed to repeat it. But even she realized the limitations of the human psyche: if suddenly confronted with the evidence that perhaps humans were not the superior beings, that there could be someone much wiser, that humans had made all sorts of mistakes – that would rob them of their purpose, their belief that they could do what's right. Without the illusion of being omnipotent it's difficult to strive to evolve, to believe that only better times could lay ahead. The notion of aliens would cause this. And Lara was unsure whether she herself was any better prepared for such a revelation than any other human.