You find your way into the opening, and down into the twisting tunnels of the mine. At each branching of the tunnels Alzmer stops and, using a piece of chalk, places an arrow pointing back the way you have come. Three bends in, you are in total darkness, the only illumination the weak glow of your lanterns which is quickly sucked up in the endless dark, the only sound the shortness of your indrawn breath and shuffling of your feet over rock floor, slick in places with the leavings of the bats.
Alzmer is using some kind electronic sensor that you cannot discern the function of. At every cross junction before picking a path, he runs the apparatus over the walls in either direction. You can see no difference in the device as it is passed over one wall or the other, but apparently he sees enough to allow him to choose one path or the other.
After what seems like an hour in the pressing dark, but in truth is only about eight minutes, most of it spent while Alzmer takes his readings, you come to the top of the shaft of an old heavy duty elevator. You press the button, trying to call the platform from the bottom, but the machinery doesn't react. Several more attempts at it yield no different results. Whatever generator once powered the lift was likely removed when the corp pulled out. Shinning a light down the opening you can make out the platform sitting, immobile, about a dozen meters below.
