"They're stopping. Why are they stopping?" Tony muttered to himself. He brought his Boarhog to a halt behind Kevin and Kyle, barely visible in the gathering gloom. "Stay here," he told Patty and got out.

Tony joined the other two at the lip of the ridge leading down into a valley. Kyle turned to greet him excitedly.

"Tony, you won't believe it, look!" he pointed down into the gathering darkness. Tony peered into the valley and took in the sight. The road they were on led down toward a broad gap between two small mountains. Filling the gap was a tall stone wall. Even from this distance, Tony could make out the wall's constituent blocks. It was clearly man-made. Beyond the wall, the space between the mountains was dotted here and there with lights. Tony estimated about a hundred little lights. They looked like windows in buildings. It was a city!

"What do you know, a city. Richard was right after all."

"That's not all," Kevin said. "Check that out." He pointed to the east of the city, further down into the valley. Tony squinted, and made out what appeared to be a construction site, of all things. He could see wooden cranes, some windmills, scaffolding, and the largest wooden warehouse he had ever seen.

But wait a minute.

"Hey Doc," he asked Kyle, "Aren't we in ancient times? I thought there would be cavemen or something."

Kyle smiled, "2370 BCE, assuming Richard set Tim right. But you're right, there shouldn't be anything this sophisticated here. Either the entire archaeology profession has been severely underestimating the achievements of our ancestors here, or we're not in the year we should be. Whatever the explanation, we have a genuine mystery on our hands."

Tony noted that Kyle seemed to have snapped out of the funk he had been in the last couple of days.

Kevin was looking through the binoculars and said, "Hey! There are people down there. By the construction site. A big crowd."

Kyle reached for the binoculars, "Let me see."

Kevin handed them over and turned to Tony, "Do you have the directional mic, or do we?"

Tony ran through the manifest in his head, "I have it. Stay here, I'll go get it."

On his way back to the boarhog, Tony heard the distant rumbling of thunder. He started rooting around in the back of the boarhog for the mic. Patty called out to him over the wind, "What's going on?"

Tony found the mic and headed back to the others. "We found some people," he told Patty as he passed her.

"I hope they're friendly."

Tony brought the mic to Kevin and squatted down to join him. Kevin put the earpiece in and hooked it up to the mic, pointing the pickup toward the crowd. He fiddled with the controls for a bit. Kyle grew impatient, "Do you think-"

"Shh!" Kevin cut him off.

The other two waited.

"I can hear them." Kevin said finally.

"What are they saying?" Kyle asked anxiously.

"I don't know, there's a lot of shouting...lots of people yelling at once...I think they're speaking Aramaic."

"Aramaic? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I can make out some individuals now...'Come out'...'Give up.'"

Tony grew a little nervous and unholstered his pistol and checked the ammo clip. Kyle spotted him, but declined to comment. Instead they waited for their Linguist to update them.

Kevin concentrated on the cacophony. "They sure are angry about something. They are all yelling about something. It sounds like a riot."

Tony rolled his eyes, "Terrific. We come all this way only to get caught up in a caveman labor dispute."

"No, it's not like that," Kevin continued ignoring the jest. "They sound like they're angry with-" Kevin stopped and a look of disbelief formed on his face.

Kyle caught the look and nudged Kevin, "What?"

Kevin took the earpiece out of his ear and turned to look at Kyle, "How sure are you that the Bible is a book of myths?"

"Why?" Kyle asked.

"Because," said Kevin, his voice hollow and defeated, "those people down there are yelling at a man named 'Noah.'"

As the full meaning of this sank in, the storm that had been building ever since their arrival finally broke and it began to rain.