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On closer inspection, I saw that the lock cylinder was not only old but cheap The collar did not feature a guard ring This offered a level of security half a step up fro the walk here from the Grille, I had paused in Mes from my backpack Noithdrew them from under my belt and used them to rip the lock cylinder out of the door

That was a noisy business, but it lasted no ed there, I went inside, found a light switch, and closed the doors behind me

The shed contained a rack of tools, but priain access to the network of storm drains under Pico Mundo Wide spiral stairs led down

On the twisting staircase, picking out the perforated ht, I was reminded of the back stairs at the Jessup house For a ame in which I had already once circled the board and had been brought by the roll of the dice to another dangerous descent

I didn’t turn on the stair lights because I didn’t know if perhaps the same switch activated service lamps in the storm drains, which would announce my presence sooner than necessary

I counted the steps, calculating eight inches for each riser I descended over fifty feet, much deeper than I expected

At the bottom, a door The half-inch-diameter latch bolt could be operated froht

Although I expected the bolt to scrape, the hinges to creak, instead the door opened without protest It was remarkably heavy but s for a hostile presence, I heard nothing When I had heard enough of it, I felt sufficiently safe to use the flashlight again

Beyond the threshold lay a corridor that led toFollowing it, I discovered that it was an L, with an eight-foot short arm Here stood another heavy door with a bolt action that worked froement of access to the storined--and seeht Again the door eased open with not a sound

In the absolute darkness, I listened and heard a faint silken sinuous sound My h the gloo water as it slid without turbulence along the sht, crossed the threshold Immediately beyond lay a two-foot-wide concrete hich seeht

A foot and a half below the ay, gray water, perhaps taking much of its color by reflection from the concrete walls of the drain, swept past not in a churning rush but in a stately flow The beaently undulating surface

Based on the arc of the walls, I estimated that the water in the center of the channel hteen inches Next to the ay, it would plumb at less than a foot

The storm drain appeared to be approximately twelve feet in diameter, a massive artery in the body of the desert It bored away toward so on the service la But a flashlight would pinpointthe only logical alternative to feeling h the stairwell door and found a pair of switches The nearest one brightened the drain

Returning to the ay, I saw that sandwiches of glass and wire protected la of the tunnel at thirty-foot intervals They did not shed the equivalent of daylight in this deep reals of shadow scalloped the walls, but visibility proved good enough

Although this was a storm drain, not a sewer, I had expected a foul smell if not a full stink The cool air had a dank scent, but it wasn’t offensive, and had that al limy smell coes carried no water They dried out and therefore did not support lingeringwater for a moment We’d not had rain in five days This couldn’t be the last runoff frohts in the eastern part of the county The desert isn’t that slow to drain

The clouds crawling down the northeast sky when I’d left Terri’s placehorde still hours distant

You ht wonder why a desert county would need flood-control tunnels as elaborate as these The answer has two parts, one involving clih we have little rain in Maravilla County, when store parts of the desert are less sand than shale, less shale than rock, with little soil or vegetation to absorb a downpour or to slow the runoff fro desert areas into vast lakes Without aggressive diversion of stornificant portion of Pico Mundo would be at risk

We can go a year without a monster storm that makes us think nervously of Noah--and then have five the next year

Nevertheless, flood control in desert towns usually consists of a network of concrete V ditches, weather-carved arroyos, and culverts feeding either a natural dry riverbed or one engineered to carry water away from human habitations If not for the fact that Fort Kraken, a major air-force base, backed up to Pico Mundo, ould be served by an equally low-tech and imperfect system

For six decades, Fort Kraken had been one of the nation’s most vital military resources The flood-control systeely to ensure that the runways and the vast facilities of the base were protected from Mother Nature in her most thunderous moods

Some believe that under Kraken lies a deep-rock coned to ride out nuclear strikes by the forovernmental center for the reconstruction of the southwestern United States subsequent to an ato the end of the Cold War, Fort Kraken was downsized but not decommissioned as were many other military bases Some say that because a chance exists that we ressive China armed with thousands of nuclear missiles, this hidden facility is maintained in readiness

Rumors have it that these tunnels serve clandestine functions in addition to flood control Maybe they disguise the venting of that deep-rock complex Maybe some of them double as secret entrances

All this end that claiators, flushed down toilets when they were babies and grown to full adulthood, live in the New York City sewer syste on rats and unwary sanitation workers

One of the people who believe all or part of the Kraken story is Horton Barks, publisher of the Maravilla County Ti in the Oregon woods, he had a pleasant dinner of trailthe person I am, with the experiences I’ve had, I tend to believe him about the Sasquatch

Now, in search of Danny Jessup, trusting to ht and followed the service ay upstreaht, toward one kind of storm or another

SIXTEEN

A BOBBING TENNIS BALL, A PLASTIC BAG PULSING AS IF it were a jellyfish, a playing card--the ten of diaht have been cyclaray tide was lu Or so it all see

Because this water poured into the flood-control system not from Pico Mundo but from a storm far to the east, it carried less flotsam than it would later if the volume increased and the downpour washed in from city streets

Tributary tunnels fed the one in which I walked Some were dry, but others added to the flow Many were about two feet in diae by which I had entered

At each intersection, the ay ended but resumed on the farther side At the first ford, I considered taking off ht step on so sharp in the water--a concern that kept me shod

My nehite sneakers were at once a ht as well have peed on theradual incline, I found the subterranean structure increasingly impressive The pleasurable curiosity that arises froradually ineers, and skilled tradesmen who had conceived and executed this project