bed to position and was
circling above, and then turned their attention to the place
where the sheet of fused earth and stone bulged upward. It must
have been almost ground-zero of one of the hydrogen-bombs: the
wreckage of the Cathedral of Learning had fallen predominantly to
the north, and the Carnegie Library was tumbled to the east.

"I think the entrance would be on this side, toward the Library,"
Altamont said. "Let's try it, to begin with."

He used the solenoid-hammer, slowly pounding a hole in the glaze,
and placed a small charge of the plastic explosive. Chunks of the
lava-like stuff pelted down between the little mound and the huge
one of the old library, blowing a hole six feet in diameter and
the two and a half feet deep, revealing concrete bonded with
crushed steel-mill slag.

"We missed the door," Altamont said. "That means we'll have to
tunnel in through who knows how much concrete. Well...."

He used a second and larger charge, after digging a hole a foot
deep. When he and his helpers came up to look, they found a large
mass of concrete blown out, and solid steel behind it. Altamont
cut two more holes, one on either side of the blown-out place,
and fired a charge in each of them, bringing down more concrete.

He found he hadn't missed the door after all. It had merely been
concreted over.

A few more shots cleared it, and after some work, they got it
open. There was a room inside, concrete-floored and entirely
empty. Altamont stood in the doorway and inspected the interior
with his flashlight; he heard somebody behind him say something
about a most peculiar sort of dark-lantern.

Across the small room, on the opposite wall, was a bronze plaque.

The plaque carried quite a lengthy inscription, including the
names of all the persons and institutions participating in the
microfilm project. The History Department at the Fort would be
interested in that, but the only thing that interested Altamont
was the statement that the floor had been laid over the trapdoor
leading to the vault where the microfilms were stored. He went
outside to the radio.

"Hello, Jim. We're inside, but the films were stored in an
underground vault, and so we have to tear up a concrete floor,"
he said. "Go back to the village and gather up all the men you
can carry. I don't want to use explosives inside. The interior of
the crypt oughtn't to be damaged. Besides, I don't know what a
blast in there might do to the film, and