"Right. So underground it's shaped something like a dumbbell, with the technical management staff at this end and then the operating people down there. What's in between? Just a big connecting tunnel?'
"Correct. And, of course, the communications conduits. For all the wiring."
Okay, Vance thought. Now we're getting somewhere. The terrorists will be split up. That's going to make things easier, and harder. They could be taken out one group at a time, but there also could be hostages at peril all over the place. These situations are always a lot cleaner when all the hostages are in one location.
"Any other connections?"
"Well, there's really only one." He shrugged, and ran his hand through his mane of white hair. Vance thought it made him look like an aging lion. "As you can imagine, these levels of power mean there are enormous quantities of waste heat. So Bates tunneled water conduits between a submerged pumping station on the other side of the island and a number of locations."
Vance's pulse quickened. "What do they lead to?"
“They run from the computer in Command, and the power plant down at the other end of the island, right beneath where we are now and . . . actually, one leads up to those heat exchangers there—" He was pointing up the mountain, past a large cinderblock building at the edge of the phased-array radar installation.
A tunnel filled with water, Vance thought. There's been enough swimming for a while. But if the system is off, then . . .
"Then there must be an entry-point up there somewhere."
He smiled and nodded wistfully. "I assume there must be. But I don't know where it is."