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impossible!” said Dr. Henderson. “There is no way in the world!”
    â€œIt’s not a box,” said Lila. “It’s a huge block!”
    It was all Dr. Cooper could do to keep his mind on flying the plane and his eyes on the instruments. He continued to climb to eleven thousand feet. Below them now, sitting solidly on the desert floor like a brick on a table, was an immense, mountain-sized object that was rectangular in shape: two long sides, two narrow sides, and a flat top, the same color on every side.
    They continued circling around to the west side. The western surface looked identical to the eastern, the same smooth, featureless red stone.
    â€œOkay,” said Dr. Henderson, looking through binoculars. “I see the desert road coming out the other side.”
    They all looked, and Jay snapped more pictures. There it was, all right, winding along, crossing more desert, then grassy drylands, and finally disappearing into some rugged, wooded hills in the west.
    Lila peered through her binoculars and spotted something. “Hey, I think I see a village down there!”
    â€œWhere?” Dr. Henderson asked, training her binoculars downward.
    â€œUh . . . about a mile off the northwest corner, on the other side of the grassland, where that forest begins.”
    â€œGot it. Oh, it’s a big one. At least . . . sixty structures.”
    â€œThe Motosas,” said Dr. Cooper.
    â€œRight.”
    â€œThey’ve got some fields planted down there,”Lila reported.
    â€œSavages who farm?” Jay wondered.
    Dr. Cooper took a long, careful look at the Stone’s top. It appeared smooth enough to land on, although lightly frosted with ice. “Well, while we’re up this high, I think we should check out that summit.”
    â€œAll right! ” said Jay.
    Lila considered how the icy flat top of the stone ended at such a keen, straight edge, and how the vertical sides dropped almost two miles straight down.“Are you sure?”
    Dr. Cooper eased the throttle back. The roar of the engine dropped in tone and the plane began to descend. “Everybody check your seat belt. We’ll come in a bit high and do a flyover, just to feel how the wind is. If it feels right, we’ll land.”
    He put the plane into a gentle turn, keeping the Stone’s flat, rectangular surface in the windshield. So far the air was smooth, just like the top of the Stone.
    â€œOooh!” Dr. Henderson cried as the plane gave a lurch like an elevator going up.
    â€œUpdraft,” Dr. Cooper said matter-of-factly. “The Stone’s heating up the air around it. The air’s rising, and we’re in it. This could be a little sporty after all.”
    He pulled the throttle back to idle as they passed over the straight, sharp edge of the Stone. Suddenly they were no longer ten thousand feet above the ground; the surface of the Stone was only a few hundred feet below them, flat and featureless like the top of a monstrous desk, and lightly dusted with snow that looked like powdered sugar. The plane was bucking a little, tilting and fishtailing in turbulence.
    Dr. Henderson cinched up her seat belt as tight as it would go. “I hope you know what you’re doing!”
    â€œAw, this is nothing for Dad,” said Jay.
    They were less than a hundred feet off the surface. They could see wisps of powdery snow swirling in lacy shapes along the ground, which helped Dr. Cooper determine the direction of the wind.
    â€œCouldn’t ask for a wider runway,” he said as he added a touch of flaps.
    As Jay and Lila looked below, the shadow of the airplane grew larger and larger, coming up to meet them. Then it joined them as the tires chirped on the stone and ice. Dr. Henderson threw her head back and released a held breath.
    â€œOkay,” said Dr. Cooper as the plane slowed to a gentle stop, the tires skidding just a little on the powdery ice. “Let’s get the work