During late morning at the backup air-flow chase behind Vault 1, the light from the dim yellow glow of a single animal fat match cut through air heavy with spider webs, ancient mortar grit, scalding dry drafts, and hot iron rust as squeezing the false wall began. Slipping through a fancy plaster grille into an unmapped crawlway that Sorell believed was too narrow for any human checker. Every detail of confined ingress · air-flow chase demanded that the crew treat the backup air-flow chase behind Vault 1 as an active building site where no physical strange flaw could be brushed aside.
Korr Var took position in the backup air-flow chase behind Vault 1 for squeezing the false wall, assessing the physical toll before lifting a single instrument. His lungs swelled easily as his underarm bellows gussets let his arms reach straight overhead in the sixteen-inch chase. Ready in his grasp were his tiny pocket torch and a wax recording slate, practical trade gear selected specifically to meet the demands of confined ingress · air-flow chase without dramatic display.
Korr slid sideways into the dark stonework upright, his boots finding tiny mortar projections for support. By applying his body clearance and his tactile memory of Jo’s fittings during squeezing the false wall, Korr Var established an eight-foot upright drop into a hidden channel gallery running behind the official tour route. Jo Saye’s elimination of shoulder bulk enabled him to chimney down the shaft without snagging his tunic on protruding iron nails…
