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"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."
As Pitt closed the connection, he was totally in the dark concerning Sandecker's insinuation. He sat down next to Giordino, who was dozing, not happy about telling his friend he wasn't going to eat anytime soon.
31
After communications with Pitt ended, Sandecker waited patiently while Gunn arranged for a helicopter to pick up his special projects director at the phony lighthouse. Then they exited the admiral's office and dropped down a floor to the conference room, where Sandecker had arranged a meeting to discuss the Celtic discoveries on Navidad Bank.
