They stood in front of the base of the statute, staring up in awe at the size and the mass of carvings that covered the surface. Gretta climbed up a few feet and examined a section of them more closely while Arnold and the professor probed around looking for an entrance.

"The only thing I can see is this slot," Arnold said, pushing aside some vines and shoving his fingers into a long slit. "If this is it, whoever used it must be built like a business envelope." Gretta dropped down beside him and studied the aperture, then scrambled back up on the face of the statue and began tracing the carvings with her fingers. "See anything?"

Time seemed to drag unmercifully as Arny watched the pair, noses close to the stone face, fingers tracing each little groove and bump.

"Well?"

"I think so. Look for a symbol like an upside down coat hanger without the hook."

"A triangle?"

"Okay a triangle, but with rounded corners... like a coat hanger."

Another agonizing delay of silent scrutiny then, "Over here, Gretta!" The professor called excitedly.

She scrambled up beside him and examined the symbol then felt around the adjacent symbols until her fingers felt one of them move. "Got it! See the notches?"

"What?"

"The key." She pulled the symbol from the rock face and showed them the slender piece of stone. "This is the equivalent of leaving the door key under the mat." She dropped back down by Arnold and fitted the key into the slit he'd found. Almost instantly there was a loud grating sound and two seams that hadn't even been visible before, opened as a large rectangular section of stone lowered into the statue like a drawbridge.

"Ali Baba!" Arnold waved away the small cloud of dust that the movement of the door raised. He looked at Gretta and the professor and finally appreciated the depth of the emotion that went into a discovery of this magnitude. "Do we go in?" He asked.

"Have to think about that for a minute," Gretta cautioned. "If it closes when we're all inside we could be in very big trouble."

"Arnold can stay out here with the key," the professor urged. "Show him what you did and let's get inside." His eyes, magnified behind his glasses, looked wild; the calm, studious personality they'd seen up to now was suddenly morphing into an uncontrollable display of avariciousness.

"Hold on, Cheesy. We need a plan. We need to-"

"I'm going in!" He dropped his pack on the ground and armed with only his flashlight, the professor ran down the sloping ramp and disappeared inside the statue.

"Jesus, what got into him?"

"Uncle William used to call it, site fever. I didn't think Cheesy would be susceptible after all his experience." Gretta stepped into the entrance and shone her light down the ramp, calling after the professor.

"Now what?"

Gretta went to the slot and began removing the key. The ramp creaked and started its slow journey back to the original position. She pushed the key back and the ramp returned to the ground.

"Since we can't take it out, I think we follow his suggestion. You wait out here with the key and I'll go after him."

"I don't like that plan. What if our friend Vincent shows up?" He watched her process the question-too slowly. "No. You know what? We'll both go. Cover the key with- with vines or something so they won't see it and we both go. I'm not staying out here alone."

Inside the statue the air was dry and musty, dust clung to the roof of their mouths and tasted gritty; Gretta's light probed along the inner wall, pausing at each display of artistically executed symbols, all in surprisingly bright colours. The divots of the professor's footprints in the sandy floor guided them along the wide tunnel.

"Hiding the key was a good idea, Arny," she whispered as they moved slowly along the wall.

"Yes, but I particularly liked your flower touch. At least it'll help me remember where it is."

"Hopefully, we'll all be out of here together." She stopped and flashed the light overhead. "You hear that?"

"No. What?"

"Listen." She moved the beam slowly around the interior and then stopped. In the yellow cone of light, the professor stood flat against the far side of the space they were in, his arms extended along the surface of the wall and his face a mask of absolute fear. "Cheesy!" Gretta started forward but jerked to a halt by his terrified shout.

"Don't! Stay where you are, Gretta. It's a booby trap."

Arnold opened his pack and dragged out a battery lamp and turned it on, illuminating the whole area. The space they were in was seventy feet or so in an irregular circle. The coloured symbols coating the walls seemed to throb in the dusty shadows that crept down from high above.

On the floor, directly in front of the professor, Gretta could see a line in the dirt that ran from his feet to a point near the center of the interior. When she stepped to one side and flashed her light along the mark she could see a faint glint of metal and at once she grabbed Arnold and moved him to the side against the wall.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

"We nearly tripped a very nasty booby trap." She called over to the professor and asked how he had been able to avoid it.

"Foolish blind luck," he croaked. "But I can't move now, I'm standing on some kind of trigger but it isn't the only one."

Arnold looked down at his feet and pulled them together, gulping. "What does he mean?"

"Suck it up, Arny. This is what adventure archaeology is all about." Gretta wore a weird smile that completely unsettled him. She shone her light along the floor, dividing the space into small squares, examining each one with great intensity. "I see where there might be two more, Cheesy. They seem to be set out in a triangle around that thing in the floor. The one you're on is at the apex. You think that could be all of them?"

"The pattern sounds about right . . . I- I don't know . . ."

"How do we know it's a trigger?"

"I started to lift my foot and- and that line appeared. I tested it again and it got bigger. You can see some kind of metal blade!"

"Okay, stay with me, Cheesy. Did it get bigger closer to you or at the other end?"

"The other end." His voice suddenly sounded more normal, more like his academic mind was back in gear.

"Alright then, that means it must pivot up toward you, so if one trigger activates the trap, then each trigger must be at the apex of its own blade, or whatever that thing is. Otherwise, you would be off to one side, right?"

"My God, Gretta, I think you're right."

"Okay then, now this is a little tougher, Cheesy, all you have to do is step well to the side, quickly, and you should be okay." They all listened to her words as they echoed softly around the statue's innards, each considering the consequences of the suggestion.

The professor stayed silent for a few minutes then when he spoke his voice was weak and somewhat contrite. "I suppose you think I've betrayed you don't you?"

"I'm not sure what to think, Cheesy."

"I have reasons for what I've done... you may not agree with them but... I never wanted any harm to come to you Gretta, you must believe that."

"I think I can manage that part of your story."

Arnold gaped at the woman he was enthralled with who seemed to have become a human chameleon, adjusting to every nuance with an entirely different personality.

"So are you going to try it?"

"You think we're right?"

"Only one way to find out, Cheesy." Arnold felt her stiffen and back slightly closer to him as they watched the professor's reaction.

"Remember what I said, Gretta." They heard him take a deep breath and then saw him leap to the side, covering his head and rolling into a ball on the floor. The line in the dirt instantly parted and a huge cleaver shaped blade sprang up out of the floor, pivoting toward the trigger and clanging against the stone wall with an ear-splitting ring.

Nobody moved. Gretta held Arnold's arm tightly, so tightly he had to pry her fingers loose to permit circulation. When they heard the professor's voice there was a joint expulsion of air followed by murmured thanks.

"Be careful, Cheesy, this thing must reset itself somehow. I wouldn't want to be under it when it falls back down." Gretta pulled Arnold after her and they stepped carefully around the other areas she had identified.

"Bloody ingenious."

"What!"

"This mechanism, Arnold. Bloody ingenious."

"Christ, a minute ago professor you were ready for last rites and now you're applauding the design?"

"Told ya, Arny, adventure archaeology." Gretta patted the professor on the back and spent a few minutes of her own examining the trap.

Arnold positioned himself against the wall in a spot he felt was safe and quietly contemplated the complexity that was Gretta Howard. First off, whichever persona she adopted, she remained the most beautiful woman he had ever known-not fashion model beautiful, or movie star beautiful-woman beautiful. If fainting were a male trait, they would be doing it in droves around Gretta.

He remembered working near her at the office how all the reports from his male colleagues seemed to be covered in drool. How bloody teenage, he thought. He wondered what the guys would think if they saw her swinging through the jungle like Sheena, stabbing and shooting the bad guys with little more than a passing nod. For that matter, what did he think?

Something was oh so slightly wrong with the entire picture but Arnold could not put a finger on it. All he knew for a fact was that his drool was all over those reports too.

"The most valuable treasure in the world for your thoughts, Arny." She stood in front of him, her eyes washing over his face with some kind of magic power.

"Huh?"

"Too late. The offer's reduced to a penny." She said, grinning at his expression.

"Huh?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah...yes. Yes, I'm fine. What ah- what are we up to now? Dodging more Mexican mechanics?"

"Olmec, actually. But yes, if we expect to win the prize. You game?"

"Lay out my choices," he answered with a trace of sarcasm.

"Follow me or sit right here. I wouldn't try leaving, we don't know what the triggering of this trap might have set off for those wishing to exit." Her eyes twinkled brightly.

She was actually enjoying the danger! "I guess I follow," he said. Would I not? Like a friggin' lemming!