Summary

While Steve Elkins was excited about using lidar to find the lost city, getting permits from the Honduran government was proving very tricky. Elkins received a call from his former fixer, Bruce Heinicke, who was living with his Honduran-born wife, Mabel, in St. Louis after Mabel's sister had been murdered in Honduras. After a coup in which the old president, Jose Manuel Zelaya, had been removed, a new leader, Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo Sosa was in power. Mabel was in Honduras for her sister's funeral, and she found out that the president would be in church the following week. Bruce urged her to use the opportunity to get to know Sosa. She went to church with her brother, Mango, a soccer star, to meet the president. Mabel was able to break through the bodyguards surrounding the president and speak to...