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.Hopefully, the flier stated, this would never happen.Butshould the vibrations occur, and if the vibrations should be caused by abuildup of silt at the sluices, the only way to stop them was to reach thesluices from the lake side of the dam.And that meant diving.But because ofan engineering oversight, the flier continued, the sluice entrances werebelow, not above, the sluices.And this underwater area was now almostcompletely obstructed by silt."Absolutely simple," said Rutherford."If we had put the openings aboveinstead of below, we could get in.""Why didn't you?""Why didn't I? Hell.I wasn't born then, and whoever thought there would be aproblem today back then?""So I have to get in from below.Okay," said Remo.He stepped into the divingsuit, feeling the rubber wet and cold against his skin.He let his mouthbreathe for him and then put on the diving mask and tanks.He ignored the offer of fins and jumped overboard.On deck the crew noticedsomething peculiar."Hey, there's no bubbles coming from him.""I didn't think he looked like he knew what he was doing," said one diver.They waited five minutes, and when they didn't see a bubble they declared himdead.Atop the dam, the sign declaring the Grand Booree to be America's Pridequivered and fell."Vibrations are reaching maximum.It's gonna go.No point waiting for thatguy.He's dead.Let's get out of here," said Rutherford."Maybe he's not dead," said one of the divers."And maybe he don't have to breathe either.Let's get out of here.You caneven see the vibrations now."Not only had the sign fallen, but across the vast dark lake little wavesappeared like the ridges of a giant washboard.Along the shore the treesquivered and dropped their leaves, and down in the darkness of the silt RemoWilliams searched for the opening.As soon as he was out of sight, Remo took off the mask and rubber suit,allowing his skin to acquaint itself with the cool water.It was not that hestopped breathing.He would never completely stop breathing.Instead he usedthe technique borrowed from the Indian fakirs, who buried themselves alive forhours at a time.By slowing the rhythms of his body he required less oxygenthan an unconscious person.Yet his nervous system functioned at peakefficiency.He knew that his muscles suffered from the reduced oxygenabsorption, but it wasn't muscles that made Remo a Master of Sinanju.The problem was finding the opening in the silt.At the top, it felt like somestrange oil on his body, but farther down it became densely packed like unsetconcrete.Even farther down it was like moving through settled clay: hard,dense, packed clay.Remo kept his eyes shut and moved along the cement base,pausing every few moments to let his palms press open-fingered against thecoarse concrete, trying to distinguish the normal vibrations of the watergoing through the sluice from those which seized the concrete mass and wereobviously growing.The plan was to create an opening through an entranceway beneath the sluice.Remo got there and found the metal plate Rutherford had predicted would bethere.It had to be moved in one direction or another, and Remo couldn'tfigure out which.As the vibrations forced him back, Remo cut through the siltonce again to reach the plate.Something had to be done with the plate.Hesensed the dam might go at any second.Taking the plate in his hands, Remo didwhat he did to old television sets, whose workings he also didn't understand.He gave it a kick.The only difference was that nowadays he kicked televisionsvery, very gently.The kick was backed up by the weight of all the damned-up water guided by thePage 71 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlrhythms of Remo's body.His foot went through the metal like a torpedo.With amuffled sucking sound, the silt was pulled through the hole, creating a rhythmof its own.The turbines stopped, clogged by mud.The dam quivered and thevibrations ceased.But Remo saw too late that it was a trap.Someone hadexpected him.The only thing in the narrow sluiceway between the open air above and the lakeitself was Remo Williams-and a small, carefully placed explosive device
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