43.
Because of the angle and the smooth
flatness of the stone, I am forced to descend the ten foot long ramp and the
cramped, twenty-plus feet of descending tunnel it accesses from down on my ass
until I come to a stone floor. That’s when I turn and look back up at two faces
looking down upon me.
“Anya,” I say. “Send down a rope,
and the hammer drill.”
She does it, sliding both items
down the ramp.
Forced to crawl back up the tunnel,
I take hold of the cordless hammer drill with one hand, grab hold of the rope
with the other. Because this half ton of perfectly engineered stone ramp
operates like a well-balanced see-saw, I can easily move it up and down with
only my pinky finger if I so choose. It means that if the guards invade the
tomb, I can easily seal the entry back up.
