Present day –

"Bloody stewardess has it in for me."

Sydney shook her head and smiled lightly, "We're almost there anyways."

Nigel sighed, "Meeting anther one of your old flames is not my idea of a fun time."

"We're going for business, not pleasure."

"And you have a clean record of that, don't you Syd?" his small smile revealed amusement.

"Oh, I'm getting you back for that one." her voice rang with promise although she smiled back.

"Syd, don't you think that it's kind of odd that a friend you haven't spoken to for three years has suddenly sent you an urgent message that only ordered you to meet with him?" Nigel asked after a moment of silence.

"Of course I think it's strange, but what can I do. His crypticness has intrigued me that and I know him pretty well, knew him pretty well."

"You can't just go around making up words just because…"

"…and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. We have now landed in Mexico City. Local time is 2:34 pm. Have a pleasant day and we hope to see you soon." The man continued in Spanish as the passengers readied themselves.

-

"Your mate works here?" Nigel asked as they walked up to a small office building.

Sydney didn't answer him and walked into the office which seemed to have made up for its size with its quality.

Nigel followed behind, letting Sydney lead him through a hallway and into an office.

There Sydney knocked on the door and stepped boldly through the threshold. "Oscar! Did you think you could leave me outside to rot?"

Nigel stepped into the office and softly closed the door.

"Sydney, I've been waiting for you all week." Oscar Del la Torre replied softly, he stood up from his desk and greeted Sydney with a small embrace. "Who's your friend?"

"Nigel Bailey; I'm Sydney's teaching assistant." Nigel answered as he held out his hand and shook Oscar's. Oscar was about five inches taller than Nigel but Oscar seemed able to make himself shorter.

"Well, you are welcome here." Oscar said. He returned to his desk and motioned to the two black leather chairs in front of the desk, "Please take a seat."

Oscar started typing something into his computer and then turned around the flat screen so that Sydney and Nigel could see the image. "These ruins were just found on the outskirts of D.F. This is just a small village but it is interesting, no?"

The photograph depicted an aerial view of a few houses with a small Centro, surrounding the small village were trees.

"I was the one who found the ruins, so they rightly put me in charge of the excavation. We have dug up most of the village and I thought you could help us with something." Oscar said.

"What's wrong? This looks great, congrats on the discovery. How did you find it?" Sydney asked.

"Umm…well, that's the thing that's wrong." Oscar replied running his hand through his short dark brown hair, "I don't remember finding it."

"What do you remember?" Sydney asked.

"Ahh…I remember…I was in the woods…" Oscar trailed off and closed his light brown eyes for moment, "…with my fiancée, Anna Maria, we love exploring those hills on our free time. We found a small cave and we stopped for lunch. Anna wanted to go into the cave but I said that there wasn't time because we had to meet my parents that night for wedding plans. She said it would only take a minute and walked in before I could answer, I followed her to drag her out...and after that nothing. I woke up at the dig site and Anna was gone."

"Well, that's odd." Nigel supplied unnecessarily. "Where is the cave?"

"I can't remember, I've been searching for it everywhere, trying to retrace my steps but I can't find the cave. I've scoured the area where we were hiking, but I can't find the cave. I know you are a relic hunter but you were the first person that I could think of to help me. The police have lost all leads and I'm under suspicion of murder, but they have no evidence, no body, and I really can't remember…"

"Oscar, slow down," Sydney commanded and noted that he had not denied the accusation, "We'll help."

-

The morning sun warmed the dirt path. The birds sang softly and other than the slight rumble of an engine there were no other sounds of civilization.

Oscar stopped his red jeep and jumped out. He brought out their back packs and handed them out.

"Do we seriously have to hike there?" Nigel asked.

"There are no roads up there, although my jeep can take rough terrain the trees become dense in some places and we would not be able to pass through; we'll have to walk from here." Oscar answered, "Besides, I do not want to miss the cave."

Oscar locked up his car and led the way into the forest.

-

"I just don't like talk shows; I mean you can clearly see that it's all scripted." Nigel said as the trio moved quickly though the forest.

"What are you talking about! They're not scripted! Those people are just over dramatic. Plus, if they had a script the network would have to pay writers and that is something everyone tries to avoid." Oscar replied.

"They scripted that stuff! Nobody in their right minds would actually say those things."

"You have no idea what things people say in front of a camera."

"No self respecting person would ever go onto one of those shows and say 'Hey! I cheated on my wife about fifteen times and I have thirty five children in forty states!'"

"That doesn't make sense…"

"Exactly!"

"The shows are based on real people that come on and talk about their problems! They want help and they feel that the public can help them in ways that they can't individually!"

"They're nothing but rubbish! Just cheap entertainment to amuse housewives without anything better to do…"

"Cut it out!" Sydney broke in, entertaining as it might be, "I don't know if you realize it but you are arguing about talk shows. Really, both of you are fairly intelligent men of high education and you're arguing about talk shows."

Oscar and Nigel stared at Sydney.

"You can't say that they are nothing, there are episodes where there are people that show themselves to be upstanding." Oscar continued as if nothing had happened.

"Oscar! How about you tell us what happened that day…"

"But I told you five times all ready!"

"…because we must be close by now." Sydney said, "Nigel, not one more word on that subject for the rest of the trip."

"Syd! He needs to see…"

"Not one word."

Nigel sighed, giving in.

"Oscar?"

"We had not traveled extremely far that day. Actually it was a slow day for us. We only traveled about five miles when we came across the cave." Oscar spoke softly as he recounted the day once more, for his benefit or for Sydney and Nigel's none were sure. "The cave should be around here somewhere."

"All right, let's split up." Sydney commanded.

"Aww…Sydney! That's never a good idea." Nigel complained.

"Do you want to spend the whole day searching for the cave?"

"No…"

"Good, then it's decided."

"But…" Nigel was going to contradict but nothing came into his mind.

"Nigel you take the west, Oscar east, and I'll go north." Sydney said, "Maintain radio contact for as long as possible."