"Ah, Adalet, there you are," Andrea says as she stopped beside the Captain's desk, "I've got a question for you. How good are you with ancient relics? I mean besides Frank, that is!"

Adalet laughed, "depends on the type of relic, but I have experience with some. Why?"

"I'm asking because I've been getting reports that some archaeologist has been digging up the Rhine Canyon desert without permission!" she explained, "this guy's been blowing up dunes, smashing private property and digging trenches everywhere! It's like an infestation of moles out there!"

"Archaeology!" Amy gasps, overhearing the two talking, "I love that stuff! Ancient ruins, mummies, adventures! Wonder what they're looking for?"

"Why not ask the archaeologist himself!" Andrea suggested, "his name's Burt Montana. Rumour is he's looking for some lost temple..."

The rookie gasped even louder, "seriously?! THE Burt Montana! He's a world-famous archaeologist! I've read about him, he travels the world studying lost treasures and having adventures!"

"I've heard of him," Adalet says, "I think I almost met him in Egypt once..."

"Fame or not, this archaeologist's not above the law! Adalet, take Amy to the archaeological dig and talk to him! Make sure he stops destroying the desert without a permit!" the Chief ordered.

She salutes, "right away, Chief!"

"Awesome!" Amy bounded on the balls of her feet, "I can't wait to get to that archaeological dig, maybe we'll bring back some treasure!"

Andrea scratched the side of her head, "fine by me... Just don't bring back trouble!"

Adalet and Amy drove out to the dig site and found it to be void of life. This especially became true when they discovered the body of Burt Montana, strapped down in the starfish formation to a slanted wall of bricked stones. Looking beyond the sight, Adalet spotted some broken pieces of stone on one of the working tables. Meanwhile, Hunter found an old, faded scroll just feet from the body that she seemed quite interested in.

"Oh, God! That body you've found has been cut wide open and left to rot in the sun!" Amy gags as she watched files buzzing around the open chest cavity, "oh no! I recognize him now... the victim... That's Burt Montana! Who would murder a famous archaeologist?! Let's get his body to Roxie and find out!"

"I'll call her," Adalet says as she finds the coroner's number in her phone.

"Good job sweeping the scene for clues, Adalet. Could this ancient scroll be a lead? Can you retrieve what was on it?" she asks, looking at the clues on the worker's table, "what about those broken bits of stone? You think they'll tell us something? Let's put it back together and find out if-"

"Is it safe to come out now?"

Amy and Adalet whipped their heads around at the sound of a meek voice speaking. A skinny, sunburnt redheaded man was peering around from behind the stack of crates. Who looked frightened, staring at Burt's body with a fearful expression.

"Who the heck are you?!" Amy exclaimed before she could stop herself.

The man moved out from behind the crates, "I'm Louis Scripps, Burt Montana's assistant! I heard screaming... What's going on?"

"Sorry to say this, but your boss is dead," Adalet reported the obvious, "what are you doing here?"

"I can't believe my boss is dead!" Louis cries, tears running down his brunt cheeks, "we've been through so much together, canoeing down the Amazon, hiking in the Himalayas. He saved my life so many times!"

"Did you hear anything? See anything strange?" Adalet asks more directly.

"No... well, I heard screams," he corrects, "so I hid. Not a very brave thing to do... Burt was always the brave one. At least before we'd started searching for the lost temple..."

Amy pulls out a notepad and begins writing down the assistant's statement, "is that lost temple what you and Montana were looking for all over Rhine Canyon?"

"Yes. We've been searching for this temple for years. We were getting so close! Legends say there is a priceless statue inside the temple. It's supposed to have magical powers! Burt was obsessed with it," Louis rambled seemingly forgetting his sorrows for a moment, "the closer we got to it, the weirder Burt got. Almost like... he was afraid of something... I guess now I'll never know what."

"Thank you for your time, Louis," Adalet smiles gently, "you can go now, if you remember anything else, please let us know."

Louis nods in affirmation before scurrying off quickly to be away from the body of his boss.

"Louis seemed really excited about this lost temple the victim was looking for," Amy remarks, putting her notepad away, "maybe Burt Montana's murder is connected to this lost temple? We need to find out more about this place!"

Adalet thought for a minute, "Burt most likely has a home office he would work out of... If anywhere would have information about this dig, it's there!"

"Nice idea, Adalet! We'll surely find clues as to the temple's location there!" she says while taking out her phone to call Hannah for the victim's address.

While Amy was on the phone, Adalet began working on the scroll Hunter had found. She carefully dusted the ancient paper with slow up and down movement. After she had covered the whole page in dust, she shook off the excess and took a look at what was on the scroll. The page was covered in strange symbols that she couldn't identify, but judging by the fact that there were repeats of some symbols, the scroll must contain a message of some kind.

"You cleaned up that ancient scroll beautifully, Adalet! What are all these drawings on it? Animals?" Amy said as she peeked over Adalet's shoulder.

"Hold on," Adalet points to the last drawing on the page, "look at this, the last drawing on that scroll looks like our victim! That's the same hat!"

"I don't understand why a drawing of our victim on this scroll?!" the blonde frowns, "let's get this scroll to Russell! He's a world expert in things no one else understands!"

Placing the scroll in her case, Adalet picks up the broken pieces of stone. After laying them down on the table she arranged them into what looked like the correct order. Once all the pieces were lined up, she applied some quick dry glue and let the pieces set into place.

"Those broken bits of stone you found at the dig... is that a wheel? Do you call that a tablet?" Amy pondered.

"It depicts a man being tied down and cut open!" Adalet notes, sparing a glance at Burt's body, "just like our victim!"

"There's no doubt, this tablet's linked to our murder... We need to find out more! Adalet, I actually know a little bit about archaeology. I'd guess this tablet is Mesoamerican in origin..." she muses, "so what we need right now is a local expert on Mesoamerican works of art... But how will we find one?!"

"Let's give Hannah a call," she suggests, "she can find us the right expert in no time!"

"I'm on it!" she says as she calls the tech expert back, "Hannah, Adalet's found a stone tablet we think is Mesoamerican. Do you know anyone who's an expert on that kind of thing?"

"Sorry, I don't know anyone who knows about old stuff. My friends think DVDs are ancient history! But give me a second..." they could hear Hannah typing and clicking for several seconds, "there's this Mesoamerican tribe based in Rhine Canyon. Maybe try talking to their chief, Zuma Tlatoani?"

"We'll do just that, thanks, Hannah!" Adalet says, ending the call.

"Okay, Adalet. Let's see what this Zuma Tlatoani can tell us about this stone!" Amy said as she carefully picked up the tablet.

Once Roxie and backup had arrived and taken over the scene, Adalet and Amy left the dig site and headed over to the Mesoamerican tribe base Hannah had directed them to. They found the tribe leader, Zuma, outside one of the stone buildings.

"Errr... Mr. Tlatoani?" Amy got the man's attention, "can you tell us anything about this tablet Capt. Adalet found at the archaeological dig?"

Zuma turned around and gave them an angry look once he caught sight of the tablet, "ignorant woman! How little you know of my culture! This is no mere tablet! It is an ancient calendar of the stars, illustrating a sacrifice!"

"Listen," Adalet stepped in-between her partner and the tribe leader, "Burt Montana's been killed in the same style as on this calendar! Do your people still perform these sacrifices?!"

"Not anymore, no. But for Burt Montana, I'm sure many of my people would make an exception!" he grunted.

"You knew our victim?" she questioned.

"Yes! That thief tried stealing every artifact, every treasure and secret belongings to my people!" he shouted in outrage, "I thank the Gods that someone killed him before he took more treasures! Our ancestors can rest in peace!"

"Wow, looks like our victim went around the globe three times over! There's so much archaeology stuff in this study!" Amy says as she tries to take in everything in the room, "good idea picking up that bank box, Adalet. Why would an archaeologist have this?! Think you can get it open?"

Adalet examined the lock, "shouldn't be too difficult..."

"And that duffel bag's got the victim's name on it. Let's look through it!" she said, unzipping the bag.

While Amy was shifting through the duffel bag, Adalet began turning the dials of the locked box. After a few minutes of spinning the dials, the lock clicked open and she lifted the lid of the box.

Adalet whistles, "whoa, Amy, this bank box is stuffed with gold!"

"Why would our victim have all this gold?" Amy questioned, pulling something out of the duffle bag.

"Maybe Hannah can track where it came from, let's get this to her," she says, closing the box, "what's that you found?"

"This photograph looks exciting. Is that the victim?" she asks, pointing to the man in the picture.

Adalet nods, "it's him. But who's the woman he's with?"

"They look pretty close here," Amy comments, "maybe you can find her in the database?"

Adalet pulled out her tablet and snapped a close-up of the woman in the picture. She ran it through the database and after selecting the closest match to the woman's features, an identification was generated.

"So the person in that photograph with the victim is called Pearl Montana!" Adalet reports as her eyes scanned the file, "it says here that Pearl's the victim's wife!"

"I'm right behind you, Adalet, let's see if Pearl can shed some light on her husband's murder," Amy says.

They tracked Pearl down to a legal dig site she had set up several dozen miles away from. The blonde woman was moving a large stone onto one of her tables when they arrived and paused her work to face them. They informed her of her husband's murder, but the woman seemed neither surprised nor bothered by the information.

"Hurry up now, I haven't got all day. That lost temple isn't going to find itself!" Pearl says in response to being told Burt was dead.

Amy smiled nervously, "Mrs. Montana, you've been told your husband's dead, right? You don't seem that upset..."

"Ex-husband, actually. We were in the midst of a divorce if you must know," she tells them, placing her brush down and picking up a different one, "we argued through our three-year marriage. We both wanted to be the world's best archaeologist. Things were often... competitive."

"But surely, you'd be a little upset. You looked so happy in that picture..." she argued, recalling the couple's happy photo.

"I didn't get upset when I was being eaten alive by fire ants in the Orinoco Delta or chased by Pygmies in the Congo. I'm not going to start now!" she winked, "besides, now my husband's dead, I guess that makes ME the best archaeologist in the world. There are always silver linings!"

"One thing I can say about you, Adalet - you've got a big heart..." Roxie complimented, "unlike this guy!"

"I'm flattered, Roxie," Adalet says, "but what brought on that... touching comparison?"

"This corpse you brought me from the dig doesn't have a heart! It was removed!" she replies with growing excitement, "this poor guy was knocked on the head, tied down and sliced open. The killer took his heart out when it was still beating!"

Amy was starting to look a little green, "yep. I'm going to be sick!"

"The corpse was clean of any DNA, fingerprints, etc. But I did find something interesting on his wrists and ankles, where he was tied up," Roxie picked up the victim's left wrist, "I found a crushed chilli seed. The kind you get in red chilli peppers. Adalet, your killer sure likes spicy food, because that red chilli seed must have come from them, trust me!"

"Thanks for bringing me this scroll, Adalet," Russell says as he entered the morgue, "all these pictures remind me of when I was a kid."

"Awww, did you like stories with lots of pictures too?" Amy asks, thinking of her favourite childhood stories.

"Ha! More like I was bored one day so I taught myself to read the Aztec alphabet," he boasted proudly, "and that scroll you found on the crime scene is a message written in the ancient Aztec language!"

The rookie twirls a piece of her hair, "whoa, Russell! You have so many hidden talents! What does it say?"

"The scroll says: "The sacrifice will be tied down and cut open at sunrise, to please the God Cuexcotzin!" he translates, "your victim was tied down, cut open and found in the morning! The killer must have been following these instructions!"

"Which means the killer reads the Aztec language," Adalet deduced.

Amy nods in agreement, "this will be tricky Adalet, not many people are as clever as Russell!"

"Don't go inflating his brain, he won't be able to walk through any doors!" Hannah joked, the last one to join them in the morgue, "thanks for sending this gold, Adalet. But, as police officers, we're not allowed to take bribes. However much we're tempted..."

"Nice try, Hannah! This is evidence," Amy reminded, wagging her finger, "Adalet found this bank box filled with gold in the victim's study."

"But of course! I didn't think you got paid THAT much! I searched bank records for these bars. The account's registered to one Otto Schmetterling," she held out the file which Adalet took, "he's one of the wealthiest art collectors on the planet! Nasty piece of work if you ask me. I've heard he'll stop at nothing to get what he wants."

"What was the victim doing with gold from an art collector?" Adalet wondered as she skimmed the contents of the file.

"Jerk or not, we better go talk to this Otto, Adalet," Amy declared.

Luckily for them, Hanah had taken initiative and had Otto brought into the station for them. Adalet and Amy left the morgue and went to the interrogation room to ask the art collector about what his gold was doing in the victim's study.

"Ah, Capt... How may I assist?" Otto inquires, resting his cane against his chair, "be swift, though. My time is very precious."

"We found a bank box filled with your gold at Burt Montana's study," Adalet replied while placing a picture of the item on the table, "what was it doing there?"

The man beamed, "why, I gave it to him! It's all perfectly legal. The gold was a down payment on the statue I wanted."

"All that gold just for some statue? Sounds suspicious," Amy commented pausing in her note-taking.

"Madam, you have no idea what you're talking about. That statue's worth double what I gave Montana. It's the most powerful thing in creation!" Otto exclaimed angrily.

"Burt's assistant mentioned Burt was looking for a lost temple because a statue was inside. Was it the same statue?" Adalet questioned.

"Yes!" he confirmed in the same loud voice, "with that statue the whole world would be at my command! Princes would kneel before me. Kings would call me master! I would be a God!"

Amy blinked, "that sounds... insane."

Otto smirked, "don't believe me? Fine. Just wait. I'll get that statue and then you'll see!"

"Why are we out in the desert, Adalet? You think there are clues out here about Burt Montana's murder?" Amy asked as the two walked through the smouldering hot desert.

Adalet shrugged, "maybe, but I think we'll need a new crime scene soon..."

"Hopefully this desert sun will help clear my head to think about this case!" she chuckled, "so, archaeologist Burt Montana was really close to finding the lost temple of the Aztecs. But then he winds up sacrificed, with his heart cut out!"

"His wife seemed unmoved," the Turk took over, "she's now claiming to be the world's top archaeologist!"

"But is that enough motive to kill?" Amy countered, "but that Aztec chief had plenty of motive. He hated Montana for stealing his people's treasures!"

"It seems like everything is tied up with Montana's hunt for the lost temple," Adalet mused.

"But where could it be?"

Before Adalet could respond, she was interrupted by what appeared to be the ground shaking. The rumbling feeling seemed to grow stronger and louder with every passing second, vibrating the two women and the dog in place.

"Hang on, the sand's shifting... Adalet! What's happening?!" Amy cried as the sand below her feet began sinking inwards and swallowed the cop whole, "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"What happened, Adalet?! One second we were in the desert, the next..." Amy groans as she looks around, rubbing her sore head.

"The ground caved in on us," Adalet replies, checking her partner for a concussion, "luckily we had a really long piece of climbing rope in the trunk!"

"And thankfully, you climbed down here to rescue me!" she smiled, "anyway, where ARE we?!"

"I think," she says, looking around the cold, damp, and slightly dark cave, "we might have just found the lost temple of the Aztecs!"

She gasped, "Oh my! Come on, let's have a look around!"

Adalet, Amy and Hunter split up and began searching around the temple. Adalet found a heavy locked stone box close to what would be considered an entrance of the temple. Meanwhile, Amy and Hunter discovered some broken pieces of stone primarily painted purple, but there were other colours mixed in with it.

"Excellent, Adalet! This is definitely the lost temple Burt Montana was looking for! Look at you go, archaeologist!" Amy joked, "What about this place could have gotten Burt killed?"

"I don't know," Adalet replies, holding up the box, "but it sounds like there's something in this chest!"

"That lock looks ancient, but I'm sure you'll unlock it quickly!" she says, "and let's piece those colourful broken pieces back together!"

Adalet works on the stone chest first. It had similar dials to the first box they had found, but instead of numbers or letters, the dials had Aztec symbols engraved on them. The stone dials were a little stiff to move but eventually, she had everything in the correct order and the chest unlocked for her.

"Jeepers! That chest from the temple... it's got a human heart inside!" Amy gags a little, swallowing back some bile that burned the back of her throat, "wait, this heart looks fresh... Oh no, Adalet! Roxie did mention the victim's heart had been ripped out. Could this be it?"

"If it's not, then I'm more worried about this heart!" Adalet shivered despite them being under the sunlight.