Page 180 of King’s Ransom

It was semi-solid, filled with bubbles and crusting.

This was as weak as it would ever be, but also solid enough for me to tunnel through.

Get going, Sam. You’re running out of air.

I made my first chip into this darker body of newly poured concrete with my ‘chisel’.

It fell away far more easily than the wall of my box had. I didn’t even need to use acid on this stuff.

‘Hell, yeah . . .’ I said aloud.

I chipped away at it in total darkness.

As I did, I flung the concrete chips back into the other end of my box. I heard them land on and around the bodies of the two Oberovs.

After forty minutes, I ignited the lighter—it was far brighter than my watch’s light—and saw that I’d created the beginnings of a hole that would be wide enough for me to fit through if I lay on my stomach and belly-crawled.

I flicked off the lighter and, breathing as shallowly as I could and working in pitch darkness, I set about chipping further into the concrete slab, carving a tight tunnel through it.

TUNNELLING

I’m not going to describe every chisel-strike of that night and the following day.

Suffice it to say, I did it for a long time. In absolute blackness.

Lying on my stomach, chiselling away.

Chip-chip-chip.

Chipping at the crusted dark concrete.

Sweeping out the crumbs by hand.

Tossing them back into the original box.

Then I’d belly-crawl into my tight tunnel again and chip-chip-chip some more.

Ten hours . . .

Then twelve . . .

Then fifteen . . .

By then, I’d worn out three of my ‘chisels’—the legs of the little cement mixer—and was onto my fourth and last one.

Then, on the first strike after I’d started using this last chisel, I struck the hard outer wall of the pit—indeed, of the whole construction site.

My heart pumped faster with hope.

I checked my watch.

It was 7:00 p.m., December 31st.

In the world outside, New Year’s revellers would be heading to parties and parks and, of course, this being New York City, Times Square.

It was getting harder to breathe.

I wondered if I’d got my oxygen calculations wrong.