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village?”
    Kai lifted her chin and raised a brow. “That’s what I told Mike. They’re preparing our travel documents. But I’m really not sure, Jake. I’ve never put any stock in dreams before.”
    Jake saw her fighting with herself, questioning the vision she’d received. “Isn’t it logical, with your dream? You’ve already checked it out on the Net. Let’s just use the dream as a starting point. We’ll use our wolf noses once we get there to snoop around, and hope the Great Spirit will give us another piece of information to follow. We have to have faith in this process. My mother always said being a medicine person was running a hundred percent on faith all the time. I’m now beginning to understand what she meant by that.” He wanted to reach out and touch Kai’s hand, but stopped himself. Seeing the uneasiness in her expression, her eyes fraught with questions, Jake sat quietly.
    â€œI suppose you’re right. I feel like an utter fool, Jake. I’ve never had a dream download into me like this, in pieces or parts. What if I’m wrong?” She touched her forehead. “Or just plain crazy? I’m sure Major Houston isn’t going to be happy about spending all that money for nothing, if this turns out to be a wild-goose chase to Australia. There may be no Ooranye when we reach Kalduke….”
    Jake murmured, “Instead of worrying, let’s use this time to try and put together what we know for Major Houston. He’s Indian. He understands how people get useful information through dreams. When we land at Yulara, near Ayers Rock, we might have a clue as to where to find this woman, and this place.”

Chapter 4
    â€œD amn, it’s hotter than hell here,” Kai said as she stepped out of the Yulara Airport at Ayers Rock. It was three in the afternoon and she saw wavering curtains of heat shimmering everywhere she looked. Jake had their luggage and he set it down nearby. As part of the undercover nature of their mission, Major Houston had issued passports, driver’s licenses and credit cards created for them under the name Davis. As in Mr. and Mrs. Kai didn’t like the fact that they were pretending to be married, but Houston told her they were dealing with thieves who had brazenly stolen from the ark to get the crystal totems. He wasn’t going to take chances with their lives under the circumstances. Kai felt Houston was overreacting, but she couldn’t talk him out of the phony identification.
    Kai squirmed over the fact she’d have to share a bedroom with Jake. That was something she didn’t want to do at all and had adamantly said so. Jake had smoothly suggested they rent two hotel rooms next to each other andthey could have separate quarters while appearing to be married. That made Kai a lot more comfortable.
    â€œThe temperature must be about a hundred and thirty degrees,” Jake said. “October Down Under is the beginning of their summertime.” Kai had placed her hands on her hips, scowling as she surveyed the surrounding landscape. Jake had spent his time on the unending flight reading up on the area, which was called the Amadeus Basin. Nine hundred million years ago, this place had been a shallow sea that had spread across most of central Australia. Nowadays, it was nothing but desert—the continent’s famous Red Center.
    The sea had been replaced with red sand, eroding in dunes that resembled ocean waves frozen in time. Wherever he looked, Jake saw clumps of prickly, spinifex grass and ghostly desert oaks. What drew him most were the vast, undulating sand ridges covered with tough vegetation that somehow endured this inhuman heat.
    â€œDude, this sucks. I like hot weather, but not this hot.” Kai watched as crowds of tourists from around the world left the small air-conditioned airport for their destination hotels. Yulara Tourist Village was situated fifteen