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Think! —
and pulled the nose up. They were skimming over the tops of the trees. Amy spotted a Mayan pyramid near a strange rectangular clearing — a narrow field of grass stretched between two stone structures. It almost looked like a landing strip, but it wasn’t very big.
    â€œI’m going to land there,” she told Jake. Biting her lip, she slowed the chopper to a hover over the grass. She pulled the collective lever slowly to lower it. They dropped down even with the tops of the trees, then below the canopy of leaves, until she could practically see each blade of grass. There wasn’t much room for error.
    The hand on her shoulder did not let go.
    The control tower gave more instructions. “Arm the parking brake,” Jake translated.
    â€œWhat does that mean?” Her head was spinning. Everything was strange — the controls, trying to fly, the orders in Spanish, the jolting pain in her belly. . . .
    More Spanish. “I think it’s this!” Jake pulled a lever. The chopper’s forward momentum stopped and it began to drop fast. They were thirty feet in the air, falling out of the sky straight down to the ground.
    â€œCrash positions!” Amy shouted. Dan and Atticus bent forward in their seats, Atticus covering his eyes. Amy frantically pulled the nose up to slow their descent, but it didn’t help. The ground zoomed up into her face. She let go of the controls and covered her head.
    Slam!
The chopper crashed to the ground, tail smashing against a stone wall. Then the front thudded down. Amy’s forehead punched her knee. All was still.
    Jake’s hand still gripped her shoulder. He’d never let go, not once.
    She lifted her head. Jake lifted his. She turned and saw Dan and Atticus crouched on the floor. Atticus raised his head. But Dan didn’t move. “Dan! Are you okay?” She reached back and shook him. He sat up, rubbing his temple.
    â€œIs it safe now? Are we on the ground?”
    â€œYes,” Amy said. She tasted metal, and realized her lip was bleeding where she’d been biting it. “Is everybody all right?” She put her hand on Atticus’s head, then on Dan’s.
    Jake nodded at her. “Yes.” It was a miracle that no one was hurt.
    Amy’s door had sprung open on landing. She unbuckled her seat belt and tumbled out of the chopper. Jake jumped out of his side and helped the younger boys to solid ground. “Dan, you’re sure you’re okay?” Amy asked. “You too, Att?” They both looked unsteady on their legs.
    Atticus straightened up tall, trying to be brave. “Just a few bruises,” he squeaked. He couldn’t hide the shakiness in his voice.
    â€œI feel like I just got poured out of a blender,” Dan said. “But I’m okay.”
    It was a skill he’d perfected over the years — masking his fear with jokiness — but her bubbling relief made it impossible for her guilt to take hold. “Thank goodness.”
    â€œHey, your mouth’s bleeding,” Dan said.
    â€œI know.” Amy pressed her lips together, tasting the blood again. She inspected the damage. They’d landed on the tail and fallen forward onto the landing skids. The tail rotors had broken off and the tip of the tail was smashed. One of the back passenger windows had shattered and a door hung off its hinges, and their backpacks had been thrown out of the chopper onto the grass. Luckily, the chopper hadn’t been too high when they started to crash, or the damage would have been worse.
    She took a deep breath and collapsed on the ground. “I’m never doing that again.”
    â€œAnd I never
want
you to do that again,” Dan said.

Tikal National Park, Petén,
Guatemala
    â€œWhere are we?” Atticus asked. They’d landed in the narrow field near a temple. Surrounding the field were rows of steps, sort of like bleachers. Set into one