“If you don’t dig your mine in the right places, water can do that over time,” Gunther explained.

Minutes later they passed out of the huge white chamber and into a spacious corridor. Its white salt walls took the light from Gunther’s flashlight and diffused and reflected it so that the passageway seemed to be lit indirectly from within the walls.

About fifty yards into the corridor, it began to narrow, obstructed by piles of salt that stretched most of the way across the floor and halfway to the ceiling.

“These are the tailings we took from the passageway,” Gunther remarked.

They walked another fifty yards before coming to a rough opening in the corridor walls. The column stopped in single file. A long trail of salt obstructed the corridor in the other direction for as far as the light penetrated.

“This is it,” Gunther said with as much pride in his voice as Michelangelo might once have used to announce the completion of his statue of David. They crowded around the opening, Seth climbing the loose talus of salt to get a good look. Zoe clambered up alongside him.

The opening was about six feet high and a hit less than three feet wide. It reminded Seth of the open face of a coffin. When Gunther shined his light into the opening, the beam revealed a long, straight passageway that continued beyond the ability of the light to illuminate. Seth looked at his watch and noted it was nearly 1 P.M.

“I’d like to go over a few last-minute things before we enter the tunnel, just so we remember the important items we went over last night,” Gunther said. “First of all, remember that there are antipersonnel mines buried in the floors everywhere. The plans indicate a random placement except near the chamber where the vault is. There they are clustered very densely.” He looked at the large, close-cropped man in his fifties who had helped to capture Stratton the night before. “For this reason, Richard will precede us with a metal detector. I hope the moisture will have rusted the detonators, but we can’t be sure.

“Remember,” Gunther cautioned, “we have not actually been in the Habersam mine. We needed the chart you obtained from the bank vault so we could make sure that we didn’t take any action that might result in our injury or, more importantly, damage to the Passion. So as soon as we set foot on the other side of this passage, we will be on completely new ground. And because of the discrepancies between the Nazi mining charts and the company charts of this mine, we don’t know precisely where in the Habersam mine our little passageway leads to.”

“That means our prediction on which booby traps we’ll face might not be right?” Zoe asked.

Gunther nodded. “I think I know where we’ll turn out.”

“I pray you are right,” Father Morgen said. And then, addressing the group, he said: “Would you like to pray before we enter the passage?”