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Fortunately, the weather held in their favor. The sky remained clear with an occasional cloud drifting far above them, and the wind stayed steady from the west at only five knots. The monotony was as unchanging as the weather. The forest below unfurled as though it were a continuous sea of algae. No human lived down there. Sunless days without end. The constant damp, warm climate caused the flowers to bloom, the leaves to fall, and the fruits to grow and ripen all through the year. Rare was the spot where sun reached through the branches of the trees and plants to touch the ground.
"Mark it!" Gu
Pitt responded by copying the navigation coordinates. "Do you have a target?"
"I recorded a slight bump on my instruments. Nothing big, but definitely an anomaly."
"Shall we turn back?" asked Giordino.
Pitt shook his head. "Let's finish the lane and see if we pick up a stronger reading on the next heading."
No one spoke as they completed the lane, made a complete 180-degree turn and headed back on a reverse course 75 meters (246 feet) farther to the east. Pitt and Giordino could not resist stealing a glance downward at the rain forest, hoping to spot a sign of the wreck, but knowing it was next to impossible to see through the thick foliage. It was a wilderness truly terrible in its monotonous beauty.
"Coming opposite the mark," Pitt alerted them. "Now passing."
The sensor, trailing on an arc behind the helicopter lagged slightly before crossing the site of Gu
Pitt and Giordino leaned out their windows and stared down, but saw only a dense canopy of tall trees rising in tiered galleries. It required no imagination to see the rain forest was a forbidding and dangerous place. It looked quiet and deadly. They could only guess at what perils lurked in the menacing shadows.
"We have a hard target," said Gu
Pitt wore a big smile as he reached over and lightly punched Giordino on the shoulder. "Never a doubt."
Giordino gri
"She must have crested close to fifty meters," Pitt calculated.
"Can you bring us around on an east/west course so we can bisect the anomaly?" asked Gu
"At your command." Pitt banked the Explorer around to the west in a tight turn that lightened Gu
"I think we passed over her from bow to stern," said. Gu
"This must be the place," Giordino repeated happily.
Pitt hovered as Gu
Giordino pulled the ring on a small canister and casually tossed it out his side window. It fell through the leaves and disappeared. A few seconds later a cloud of orange smoke began to rise above the trees. "X marks the spot," he said happily. "I can't say I look forward to the hike."
Pitt looked at him. "Who said anything about walking seven kilometers through that botanical nightmare?"
Giordino gave him a quizzical stare in return. "How else do you expect to reach the wreck?"
"This marvel of aircraft technology has a winch. You can lower me through the trees."
Giordino peered at the thick mantle of the rain forest. "You'd get hung up in the trees. We'd never be able to hoist you out again."
"Not to worry. I checked the tool locker beneath the floor before we left Quito. Someone thoughtfully provided a machete. I can hang from a harness and hack my way down and up again."
"Won't work," said Giordino with a trace of concern in his voice. "We don't have enough fuel to hang around while you play Jungle Jim and still reach the airport in Manta."
"I don't expect you to wait at the curb. Once I'm on the ground, you head for Manta. After you refuel, you come back and pick me up."
"You might have to wander around before you find the wreck. No way you can be spotted from the air. How will we know exactly where to lower the harness?"
"I'll take a couple of smoke canisters with me and set them off when I hear you return."
The expression in Giordino's eyes was anything but cheerful. "I don't suppose I can talk you out of this craziness."
"No, I don't suppose you can."
Ten minutes later Pitt was secure in a safety harness co
"Don't forget to bring back a bottle of champagne so we can celebrate," Pitt shouted as he stepped through the open door of the ship and hung suspended.
"We should be back in two hours," Gu
As he hung supported by his safety harness, machete gripped in his right hand, a portable radio in his left, Pitt felt almost as if he were once again dropping into the green slime of the sacrificial well. He could not tell for certain how high he was above the ground, but he estimated the distance from the roof of the forest to its floor to be at least 50 meters (164 feet).
Seen from the air, the rain forest looked like a chaotic mass of struggling plant growth. The trunks of the taller trees were crowded with dense layers of shorter growth, each seeking its share of sunlight. The twigs and leaves nearest the sun danced under the downdraft provided by the helicopter's rotor, giving them the appearance of a restless, undulating ocean.
Pitt held an arm over his eyes as he slowly descended through the first tier of the green canopy, narrowly brushing past the limbs of a high mahogany tree that was sprouting clusters of small white flowers. He used his feet to spring without difficulty out of the way of the thicker branches. A draft of rising steam, caused by the sun's heat, wafted up from the still unseen ground. After the air-conditioned cabin of the helicopter, it didn't take long for sweat to flow from every pore. As he frantically pushed aside a branch that was rising between his legs, he frightened a pair of spider monkeys that leapt chattering around to the other side of the tree.
"You say something?" asked Gu
"I flushed a pair of monkeys during their siesta," Pitt replied.
"Do you want me to slow you down?"
"No, this is fine. I've passed through the first layer of trees. Now it looks like I'm coming down through what I'd guess is laurel."