"Think it's big enough for somebody to get into?"
"It should be. Everything was over-engineered, since we weren't sure how much waste heat there would be."
"So all I have to do is get into the heat exchanger, then hope there's some air left in Bill's granite water pipe."
The old man looked worried. "Do you realize the kind of energy that goes through that conduit? If they should turn on the pumps, you'd be drowned in an instant and then dumped out to sea."
"I've already been drowned once on this trip. Another time won't matter." He shrugged. "But I've got to get inside and find out how many terrorists there are and where they're keeping the people.'' Once I figure out their deployment, he was thinking, we can plan the assault.
"It's dangerous," Mannheim mumbled. "That conduit was never intended to have anybody—"
"I'm forewarned." He was apprehensively rising to his feet and wincing at his aches. "All you have to do is get me inside."
2:36 p.m.
Georges LeFarge felt like he was getting a fever. Or maybe the room was just growing hot. All he knew was, he was miserable. He swabbed at his face with a moist paper towel and tried to breathe normally, telling himself he had to keep going, had to stick by Cally. This was no time to give in to these creeps and get sick.