After several hours of flight the plane landed in a river deep in the interior of South America. It taxied up to a small village made of three prefabricated houses and a large generator that had been shipped to the location on a barge when the excavation at the pyramids had begun two weeks earlier. This village was a good distance from the actual excavation site, since it had to be built on the bank of the river for large vessel and floatplane access. To actually get to the excavation required using a shallow draft boat to go up a nearby stream for about six miles and then taking an automobile from the boat three more miles inland to get to the nearest pyramid.
Garrett stepped off of the plane and before helping to unload it he greeted the other colleagues that were already at the excavation. Chris and Alexis had been the first to discover the site as they were flying over it on their way to another location farther to the south. Paul had then joined them after the discovery of the site, as well as five assistants who they had hired to help with excavations when they had started excavations in South America the previous year. After Garrett had greeted everyone he went back to the plane to unload his things. There was not much to unload, but it had been secured tightly in the back of the plane to prevent it from shifting around in flight and hitting anything in the plane.
The following morning Garrett got onto the boat to assist at the excavations. While heading upstream to reach the dock he showed John, Chris, Alexis, and Paul what he had discovered on the topographic map. However, although they were interested in excavating there, they were running out of support for their dig. Although the pyramids were plain in comparison to other pyramids in the region, that was the problem. The few investors back in America wanted to get something in return for the dig in the form of material objects. There had been no carvings found on the pyramids or anything else that they could take home to place in collections. There were only two more weeks remaining and the funding would be cut. Garrett still wanted to investigate the central site, but he would have to work there with no help.
The boat arrived at the dock on the stream. The dock was simply a clearing on the water's edge with a wooden pole to tether the boat on. There were three jeeps and a bulldozer, purchased as military surplus, in the clearing. John, Chris, Alexis, Paul, and the five workers got onto two of the jeeps and left to head down a rough dirt road. The road was really just brush that had been trampled flat and into the mud and dirt by the bulldozer. Garrett got onto the bulldozer and got out his GPS. He headed down the road for three miles where it went over a hill of dirt and toppled trees. There was then a clearing around one of the pyramids where much of the soil around it had sloughed off and created what looked vaguely like a crater where there was nothing but dirt and a couple trees around the pyramid. Garrett drove past this pyramid and to the second one in a clearing that had been connected when someone had plowed through the piled dirt with the bulldozer. Past the second pyramid there was just jungle.
Garrett continued to drive forward through the trees and around the largest ones until he began to drive up a mound several minutes later. This was a combination bulldozer and backhoe, so Garrett drove nearly to the top of the hill and began working at the hydraulic controls for the shovel. He quickly dug several feet into the soft and rain-soaked soil. After nearly a half hour of digging Garrett repositioned the bulldozer and continued to dig. After digging ten feet deep in a wide hole, there was a sharp grating noise as the hoe struck the surface of the pyramid. Garrett then realized that since there was a pyramid here it would take another earthquake to unearth it before the two weeks were over. He then thought that if there were some explosives handy that he could unearth the pyramid in one or two days. Garrett picked up the radio on the bulldozer.
"Chris, Alex, Paul, you there?"
"Yeah, this is Alexis."
"Are there any explosives in the camp?"
"Why do you need explosives?"
"I can unearth this pyramid here in a couple hours if I could get an explosive charge on the surface of each side of the hill surrounding it."
"Sorry, but we don't have any explosives."
"Have you encountered any insurgents around here then?"
"No, but I was told to watch out for them."
"Do you have any idea where I could find them?"
"Why?"
"They would be the people I would be able to go for to get some explosives."
"Hello," said an unfamiliar voice over the radio.
"Who are you?"
"You need explosives? Then you arrange a meeting place and bring some money."
"How about one mile upriver of Stream 34HX on the river at six this evening?"
"Okay. Come alone and unarmed."
"Fine."
"You really think you're not going to be kidnapped."
"I'm doing business with them, not opposing them."