Wrapping one hand through a rung for balance, he used both hands to grip the bolt and pull. It slid out of its clamp with little resistance. Then Pitt leaned to the side until his shoulder was pressed against the cover, and heaved.
It moved a millimeter at most.
'It's going to take the two of us,' he called down.
Giordino came up the ladder until he was standing one rung up from Pitt to compensate for the difference in their heights. It was the wolf matching strength with the bear. With two shoulders against the heavy iron cover, they both put their strength into the effort.
The cover fought back, budged less than an inch and froze in place.
'Stubborn devil,' grunted Giordino.
'At least it moved and isn't welded,' Pitt replied.
Giordino grinned. 'Once more with feeling.'
'On three.'
They stared at each other briefly and nodded.
'One,' said Pitt, 'two and threeeee.'
They both thrust upward with every ounce of strength they possessed. For an instant, the cover resisted. Then it slowly gave, and with a loud screech it abruptly swung open and clanged against one wall of the ventilator shaft. They stared upward into the ominous black cavity as if it was a stairway to paradise.
'I wonder where it comes out,' murmured Giordino between breaths.
'I have no idea, but we're going to find out.'
Giordino gave Pitt's arm a light squeeze. 'Hold on. In case the Specter goons come looking for us, let's give them something to chase.'
He dropped down the ladder and climbed in the electric security guard car. He removed the belt off his shorts and tied the steering wheel so the front tires were positioned straight ahead. Then he pulled the front seat out of the car and stood it on end, using it to press the accelerator against the floorboard. Finally, he turned on the ignition and stepped back.
The car shot down the tunnel, its headlights carving weird patterns through the darkness. Within a hundred yards, it yawed against one wall of the tunnel, then careened against the other side in its wild ride, bouncing back and forth with a rending screech of tortured metal far into the distance.
'I wonder how Specter will explain that to his insurance adjuster,' said Giordino. He turned, but Pitt was already scaling the ladder.
In the tension and stress of the past several hours, Pitt was surprised at how stiff and cramped his muscles had become. He climbed slowly, conserving his strength. With no lights, he felt a touch of claustrophobia as he ascended in the pitch-blackness. Me began counting the rungs and paused whenever he reached the fiftieth to catch his breath. They were spaced twelve inches apart, so it was a matter of simple arithmetic to calculate the distance they had climbed. Climbing down the ventilator shaft into the control booth from El Castillo, assisted by gravity, seemed like a swim in the bathtub in comparison. At rung three hundred and fifty, Pitt stopped and waited for Giordino to catch up. 'Does this never end?' Giordino gasped.
'Pardon the pun,' Pitt muttered between heavy breaths, 'but there is light at the end of the tunnel.'
Giordino looked upward and saw a tiny glow in the distance. It looked ten miles away to him. 'Is there any way it could come to us?'
'Just hope it doesn't move farther away.'
They continued on, increasingly conscious of the eeriness of the shaft. The glow above grew larger and magnified with agonizing slowness. Water dripped down the walls and onto the rungs. Their hands pulling and scraping against the rust on the rungs as they struggled upward soon became red and raw, the skin scoured as if by sandpaper.
At long last, the glow became a bright light and the nearness renewed their strength. Pitt began climbing two rungs at a time, using up his failing strength at an increased rate. But the end was only a few short feet away now.
With a final effort that cast him over the edge of exhaustion, he came to the wire mesh that covered the top of the shaft, hanging there with breaths coming in great heaves, blood trickling from his palms and fingers. 'Made it,' he gasped.
Giordino soon joined him. 'I'm not up to cutting through that stuff again,' he panted.
As soon as the numbness and aches subsided, Pitt reached into the knapsack, retrieved the wire cutters and wearily began snipping at the wire mesh. 'We'll take turns and spell each other as we tire.'
Pitt cut only a few inches in as many minutes before he could no longer squeeze the handles of the wire cutters. He moved aside and handed the cutters to Giordino. Because of the blood on his hands, they nearly slipped from his fingers. Pitt held his breath, but Giordino barely caught them before they fell out of sight into the darkness below.
'Keep a tight grip,' Pitt said, with a grim smile. 'You wouldn't want to make the climb all over again.'
'I'd die first,' Giordino muttered bravely. He cut almost ten minutes before he let Pitt relieve him.
It took the two of them almost an hour before they cut an opening large enough to crawl through. Once past the mesh that had shaded the exterior light, Pitt's eyes were blinded by the sunlight that streamed all around him. Putting on his sunglasses to relieve the glare from eyes accustomed to darkness, he found himself in a round room whose walls were glass from floor to ceiling.
While Giordino squirmed through the opening, Pitt walked around the glass-enclosed room and gazed down at a spectacular three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of a huge lake and surrounding islands.
'Where did we come up?' asked Giordino.
Pitt turned and looked at him with a bemused expression. 'You're not going to believe this, but we're at the top of a lighthouse.'
'A lighthouse!' burst Sandecker at Pitt's description over his speakerphone. His voice betrayed his elation at hearing Pitt and Giordino were alive and safe.
'Yes, sir,' Pitt's voice came back over his satellite phone. 'Specter built it as a folly.'
'A folly?'
'A structure built to look like the ruins of an ancient castle or historic structure,' Gunn explained. He leaned over the speakerphone. 'You're saying the lighthouse was built to hide a ventilator shaft rising from the tunnel.'
'Exactly,' answered Pitt.
Sandecker twisted one of his cigars. 'Your story sounds fantastic.'
'All true down to the last item,' said Pitt.
'A tunnel-boring machine that can cut through a mile of rock a day?'
'Which explains how Specter was able to excavate four tunnels, each nearly a hundred and fifty miles in length, in four years.'
'If not for railroads,' said Gunn, 'for what purpose?'
'Al and I can't even make a good guess. The pumps on each end of the tunnels suggest they'll be used to drive water through them, but that doesn't make a lot of sense.'
'I've taped your brief report,' acknowledged Sandecker, 'and will give it to Yaeger to come up with possible concepts until you can arrive and make a more comprehensive report.'
'I also have photos taken with a digital camera.'
'Good, we'll need every piece of evidence you collected.'
'Dirk?' probed Gunn.
'Yes, Rudi.'
'I plot your location as only thirty miles from San Carlos. I'll charter a helicopter. They should be in the air and over your lighthouse in another two hours.'
'Al and I can't wait to clean up and eat a decent meal.'
'No time for luxuries,' snapped Sandecker. 'The copter will take you direct to the airport in Managua, where a NUMA jet will be waiting. You can wash and eat after you arrive.'
'You're a hard man, Admiral.'
'Learn from it,' Sandecker said, with a canny grin. 'You might be sitting in my chair someday.'
