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Corona walked over to one of the end links and lifted it with considerable effort "They h fifty kilos each"

This is truly light-years ahead of any other discovery," said Oxley, treht

Sarason tore his gaze away and gestured to Amaru "Get it loaded on board the helicopter, quickly"

The evil-eyed killer nodded silently and began giving orders to his men and a squad of soldiers Even Corona, Ca forklift and plenty of sweat, the two sections of chain were manhandled aboard two army helicopters and sent on their way to the desert airstrip

Zolar watched as the two aircraft beca can stop us now," he said cheerfully to his brothers "A few est treasure known to man"

To Sandecker, the audacious plan to coh the back door of Cerro el Capirote in a wild atte less than suicidal He knew the reasons Pitt had for risking his life, rescuing a loved one and a close friend fro the score with a pair ofa wondrous treasure frorounds for justification of other e the unknown, laugh at the devil, and dare the odds Those were his stimulants

As for Giordino, Pitt's friend since childhood, Sandecker never doubted for an instant the rugged Italian would follow Pitt into a molten sea of lava

Sandecker could have stopped theht of by ency in the governa out of step with official Washington made him the object of respect as well as envy The other directors of national bureaus would never consider hands-on control of a hazardous project in the field that nation by presidential order Sandecker's only regret was that this was one adventure he couldn't lead himself

He paused after carrying a load of dive gear from the old Chevy down the tubular bore and looked at Peter Duncan, who sat beside the sinkhole, busily overlaying a transparency of a topographical round water systems

The two charts were enlarged to the sa Duncan to trace the approximate course of the subterranean river Around hiear and float equipment "As the crow flies," Duncan said to no one specifically, "the distance between Satan's Sinkhole and Cerro el Capirote works out to roughly thirty kilometers"

Sandecker looked down into the water of the sinkhole "What quirk of nature formed the river channel?"

"About sixty o," answered Duncan, "a shift in the earth caused a fault in the li water to seep in and carve out a series of connecting caverns"

The ad do you think it will take you to get there?"

"Running with a current of nine knots," said Pitt, "we should make the treasure cavern in three hours"

Duncan looked doubtful "I've never seen a river that didn't meander If I were you I'd add another two hours to my estimated time of arrival"