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exactly do we pull off this ?"

Stokes pointed down to the island again "I should begin my descent in about five minutes"

Pitt could do little but sit back and enjoy the view Below he could see the great volcanic cone with its central pipe of blue ground that contained the rough diairders stretched over the open core, with a myriad of steel cables that raised and lowered the excavated debris Once they reached the top, the buckets then ondolas across the open pit to buildings where the dias, which were then dus The e anyone fro, a reality Pitt found obvious from the total absence of any entrances except one, a tunnel that opened to a road that led to a dock on a small bay He knew from hiswith an e toward the mainland

A series of prefabricated buildings grouped between thequarters for the miners The enclosure, easily two kilometers in diaar The entire antic scar on the landscape from the air

"That's one big pockmark," said Pitt

Without looking down, Stokes said, "That pockmark, as you call it, is where dreams come from"

Stokes leaned out his fuel450-horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp engine until it began toover the radio warning hinored it "I have a fuel blockage andSorry for the inconvenience, but it can't be helped" Then he switched off the radio

"Don't you just hate dropping in unannounced?" said Pitt

Stokes was concentrating on landing the plane, with the engine coughing and barely turning over, and did not reply He lowered a pair of se pontoons and lined up with the runway A crosswind caught the plane, and Stokes overcohtly as he observed that Stokes lacked full control The Mountie was reasonably coh, and he alround-looped

Before the plane rolled to a stop in front of the airstrip's hangar, it was surrounded by nearly tenBushmaster custoaunta combat helmet stepped up on one of the floats and opened the door He entered the aircraft and uard rested his hand on a holstered nine-millimeter automatic

"This is private property, and you are trespassing," he said in a perfectly friendly voice

"Sorry," said Stokes "But the fuel filter clogged The second tias nowadays"

"How soon can you make repairs and be on your way?"

"Twenty minutes, no more"

"Please hurry," said the security official "You'll have to remain by your plane"