by foliage overhead, but the echoing rumble from up the hill meant it would not be hard to find.
She noticed that Mac appeared a little hesitant on the uneven ground. ‘You okay?’
‘I just need a bit of extra support,’ he said, smiling. ‘And there it is.’ He picked up a fallen branch and knocked it against a nearby trunk to shake off loose dirt before leaning on it. ‘There. A perfectly good walking stick.’
‘Tie another couple together and you’ll be able to make a Zimmer frame,’ Eddie joked.
Mac waved the stick at him. ‘Do you want me to kick your arse, Eddie, or beat it?’
‘Now, now, boys,’ said Nina, amused. She turned to Osterhagen. ‘Okay, Leonard. What are we looking for?’
Osterhagen had photo blow-ups of the Paititi map laminated in a folder. ‘First, we find the waterfall, I suppose. Then, if the painting was accurate, the ruins should be to one side of it.’
Zender bustled over, Juanita a step behind. ‘Is this the place? Have we found it?’
‘We haven’t even started looking,’ Nina chided. ‘Okay, to find the waterfall we just need to follow our ears. Then we’ll see what else is there.’
The soldiers stayed with their Jeep as the rest of the expedition moved uphill into the jungle. The rumble of falling water soon became a roar, and they emerged from the trees to face its source.
‘Now that’s pretty . . . wow,’ said Macy.
‘No kidding,’ Nina agreed.
Close up, the falls were even more spectacular than they had appeared from the road. The flow, some ninety feet across, plunged down the wide, almost sheer cliff to crash thunderously over the broken boulders at its base. Spray swirled across the pool carved from the rocky ground, sparkling rainbows shimmering in the sunlight breaking through the clouds. A broad, fast-flowing stream acted as a run-off, water rushing away into the forest.
Osterhagen compared one of his pictures to the view before him. ‘It looks a lot like the painting. Don’t you think?’
‘It’s pretty close,’ Nina agreed. While the mural was stylised, there were undeniable similarities between it and the real-life features of the landscape.
‘So in that case,’ said Eddie, ‘where’s this lost city?’
‘Let’s take a closer look, shall we?’ Nina led the way to the water’s edge. ‘According to the map from Paititi, it should be off to that side of the waterfall.’ She pointed. ‘We’ll split up and check the cliffs.’
Eddie looked up at the falls. ‘Think this really is the place?’
‘It could be. I’m getting a vibe.’
‘I thought you left your vibe at home?’ he said with a dirty smile. Nina shook her head, then directed the others to begin the search.
Despite her gut feeling, however, nothing turned up. The cliffs were conspicuously lacking in golden cities, or nooks and caves that might provide entrance to one. Empty-handed, the expedition members regrouped by the pool. ‘I don’t understand,’ said Osterhagen disconsolately. ‘It matches the picture from Paititi. What are we missing?’
‘There is nothing here,’ said Zender. ‘We have wasted our time.’
Nina was losing her own patience with the Peruvian official. ‘We haven’t finished searching yet. There’s the other side of the waterfall to search, for a start. And then there’s the waterfall itself. There might be an opening behind it.’
‘Easy way to check,’ said Eddie. He picked up a stone and flung it into the plunging waters. A faint clack of rock hitting rock was audible even over the rumble of the falls. ‘Well, that’s solid,’ he said, picking up a second stone and hurling it at a higher spot. ‘And that’s . . . ’
The second missile was swallowed up without a sound.
‘. . . not,’ Eddie concluded, surprised. ‘Huh. I was only doing that to take the piss!’
‘There’s a cave behind the waterfall?’ Mac asked.
‘Maybe . . .’ Nina regarded the falls thoughtfully.
Eddie threw another stone, aiming at the same height as before, about sixty feet above the pool, but some way off to one side. Again, the missile disappeared noiselessly. ‘It’s at least forty feet wide,’ he said, bending to pick up a new projectile.
Nina put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Save your pitching arm, hon. We’ve got an easier way to check.’
Amongst the team’s equipment was a laser rangefinder, which Nina had requisitioned from the IHA to take measurements of whatever they found. The results took some time to collect; while the device could work through rain, it hadn’t been designed to send its beam through a torrent of water. The reading constantly fluctuated as the