"Nasty beast!"
Matt didn't reply, his eyes searching out the dusty walls for a stairway. "There." He pointed with his rifle.
The door stood open. Stairs descended into blackness.
The fort proved to have not one basement, but three. The first level held trucks, tanks, half-tracks, and cars in solid ranks. The second basement was stored with ammunition, the third held furnaces, a pumping system and a power plant, the generating force being a massive atomic boiler.
Matt whistled softly. "We'll have to get the engineers down here right away."
Isaac said, "Three basements, thirty floors. It'll take us a month to explore the building."
Matt turned to Nesbit. "Go back to the ship, Hi. Tell Captain Bascom to send the chief engineer and the first assistant to put these atomic engines back in operation. The second assistant engineer is to start one of the trucks, load it with explosives and blow up all the bridges across Salt River except the highway bridge.
"Tell Sawyer to take two more men and another truck and fortify the highway bridge. Dismount some of these machine guns if necessary, and set up a pill box at this end. String barbed wire across the bridge. Got it?"
"Yes," said Nesbit. He turned to leave. "What should I do then?"
"Get another truck and start hauling our equipment into the fort. Isaac and I are going to look over the upper floors."