"It was ample," Giordino said confidently. "The charges were the right size to do the job. Please observe." He gave the bar a vigorous kick with his heel. It remained solid, unyielding. He kicked it again, this time harder, his mouth tight from a jolting pain in his heel and sole. The top end of the bar broke loose, bending its jagged and torn tip inward until it lay on a horizontal plane. A tense smile creased Giordino's mouth and his teeth slowly spread into view. "And now for my next trick…"

"Never mind," Pitt snapped brusquely. "Let's get the hell going. We've got to get to the villa and back in time to join the next tour."

"How long will it take to get there?"

Pitt was already climbing through the opening in the gate. "Last night it took me eight hours to get out, we can get in in eight minutes."

"How? You got a map?"

"Something even better," Pitt said quietly, almost grimly, pointing at the flight bag. "Pass me the light."

Giordino reached into the bag, pulled out a large yellow light, nearly six inches in diameter, and passed it through the opening. "It's big enough. What is it?"

"Allen Dive Bright. Aluminum casing is waterproof to a nine-hundred-foot depth. We're not going diving, but it's rugged and throws out a long narrow beam, backed by one hundred and eight thousand candlepower. That's why I borrowed it from the ship."

Giordino said no more, merely shrugged and slipped between the bars, following Pitt into the passage. "Hold on a second till I remove the evidence."

Giordino's stubby hands nimbly unwound the shredded wrappings—a pile of old fallen stones covered the smoldering remains—before he turned to face Pitt, squinting his eyes until they became accustomed to the dim light.

Pitt played his light into the darkness. "Look there on the ground. See why I don't need the services of a detailed map?"

The powerful beam spotlighted a broken trail of dried and caked blood leading down the steep uneven stairway. In a few places the red stains lay in scattered clusters, separated by occasional tiny round specks. Pitt descended the steps shivering, not so much from the sight of his old and discarded blood, but from the sudden change in temperature from the outside afternoon heat to the damp chill of the musty labyrinth. At the bottom he took off at a half trot, the swaying light in his hand casting a series of bouncing shadows that leaped from the crack-lined ceiling to the rough-hewn rock floor. The loneliness and the fear that gripped him the night before was not present. Giordino, that indestructable sawed-off package of muscle, a trusted friend for many years, was beside him now. Damned if anyone or any barrier would stop him this time, he thought doggedly.