Doomsday Match by Jeff Wheeler EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Jeff Wheeler
- Language: English
- Genre: Supernatural Thrillers
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
MAYA BIOSPHERE RESERVE
XMAKABATÚN, GUATEMALA
December 20
The roar of the twin propellers made shouting the only way to be heard,
even with the headsets. As it soared over the jungle lowlands, the plane
bucked and dipped, causing various components of the LiDAR equipment
to rattle, although they were secured with thick straps. The pilot’s face was
dripping with sweat, which leaked beneath his sunglasses and into his
scraggly beard.
“That’s the last run!” the pilot shouted. “Time to head back to the
airport!”
Dr. Estrada shook his head, planting his palm on the cockpit
dashboard to brace himself against a sudden lurch. “Let’s go a little farther.
We have enough fuel.”
“Eh?”
“Head north!”
“We did the runs already. It’s time to go back.”
“We have fuel. North. Now!”
Dr. Estrada felt the sweat dripping down his ribs. The twin-prop plane
was flying at an altitude of two thousand feet. That was within the ideal
range for the LiDAR equipment. But it made for a choppy ride, and the
blazing sun was certainly as hot at their altitude as it was down in the jungle
below. The LiDAR equipment generated plenty of heat too. The strapped
boxes had cables running through the plane like spiderwebs. A hole had
been set into the bottom of the stripped-out plane so that the lasers pointed
down at the jungle below—a tangle of cedar, ceiba, and cojon trees meshed
together, so dense it was impossible to see beneath the canopy.
Data had proven that LiDAR was the next breakthrough in
archaeology, capable of digitally stripping away the trees and revealing
man-made structures that had been abandoned by the Maya centuries
before.
Dr. Estrada was on the leading edge of the research in a joint
partnership with UC San Diego in California. The lab, funded by a giant
semiconductor company, processed the terabytes of data produced by the
equipment in the plane. It would take a hundred years to sift through the
vast amounts of data—except thanks to Moore’s Law and the
miniaturization of circuits, the servers were getting faster and faster,
allowing the data to be mined and mapped much faster as time went on. He
was excited about the work. Half of archaeology was knowing where to dig,
and LiDAR provided an accurate map of what lay beneath the jungle’s
growth and was more dependable than the human eye.
Through the windows, he could see the scenery of the Guatemalan
jungle whip below them. The plane had to avoid the occasional blizzard of
startled macaws.
The pilot, Miguel Santos, had adjusted course north. The additional
time meant more money for him.
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