Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve, Belize
A jungle that is normally filled with the calls and roars of various creatures is suddenly and briefly drowned out by a loud and fast moving helicopter containing several military personnel and three somewhat baffled scientists. Dr. Alex Boynton takes a quick glance out the window looks at the sea of green as the Bell 212 skims across the jungle canopy. He doesn't consider himself a nervous flyer, but right now he wishes they would fly a little higher. It doesn't help that he had no idea why anyone would request an astrophysicist in the middle of a jungle. If he was going to die in a helicopter that blundered into a tree in a jungle, he would prefer it was in the service of some great discovery that changes our understanding of the universe.
"Great view isn't it?" crackled his headset.
One of the difficulties of riding in a helicopter was that it was very loud and you could only talk to one another via headsets. You could never be sure who was talking, or even if they were talking to you. Nobody was looking at him.
The man sitting next to him was a geologist named Prof. Harold Morton. He is a fairly gregarious and sometimes too loud Englishman. He suddenly turned to Alex and said "Ever been to Belize before?"
Alex only shook his head no.
"Been here many times myself" continued Morton. "They have a huge extensive cave system, one of the largest in the world. It's absolutely wondrous."
"Great" was all Alex could manage. I don't suppose one of them might contain a neutrino detector? He thought. His curiosity was getting the better of him and he had to see if his seat mate was holding out on him. "Are you sure you have no idea why they need us?" pried Alex.
Morton gave him a quick sideways glance. "I told you, I have no idea, they will brief us when we get there."
"All I know is that Dr. Sarah Marshall is heading the team."
Both Alex and Morton looked across to their formally silent compatriot sitting across from them. Dr. John Kraus is an anthropologist, who looked like he was a white knuckle flyer at the best of times, had his eyes closed and head down through most of this flight. Apart from some forced pleasantries before the flight, this was the first time he spoke.
"Sarah?" inquired Alex.
"You know her?"
"Yes," replied Alex, "personally, in fact. We were colleagues at Berkeley, before I moved to Tucson."
"So who is this Sarah Marshall?" questioned Morton.
"DOCTOR Sarah Marshall is a fairly world renowned archeologist." Morton looked at Alex with a blank stare, so he continued, "She is also married to Dr. Rick Marshall."
Morton's face brightened at this, and produced a broad smile. "Rick Marshall? The Animal Doctor?" Morton let out a loud laugh at this. "I love his show! That guy is absolutely crazy!"
"Well actually…" started Alex before he was interrupted by a crackle from the pilot, "We are approaching our destination, and we will be landing shortly."
Kraus immediately went back into his crash position while Morton eagerly looked out the window again, but almost immediately he let out a small angry growl. "They've clear cut a section of jungle to create a helicopter landing area…and they've brought in heavy drilling machinery! Bloody fools!"
Alex gave another quick glance out the window. He couldn't see the clear cut area, but he could easily see two large cranes towering above the trees. What the hell has he gotten himself into?