A mushroom of brilliant light expanded above them. The car jerked and grated on the rock walls, then went down in a free fall, the cable trailing slack above them.
Down the shaft hurtled the old lift, air whistling eerily round its edges.
"They've blasted the cable!" Heydrick cried. "Now we are in for it." He leaped to the brake lever and tugged at it. The bar was rusted fast. Ria tried to help. With their combined weight and effort, the bar gave a little. Inch by inch, it moved. The clamps started taking hold of the side walls and a shriek of protest came from rock and metal. The elevator slowed slightly. Too late.
With a grinding rasp of smashed metal, it struck. Ria was hurled clear, but Heydrick was trapped.
The metal cable came down, coiling and snapping like a whip. A stiff spiral of it covered Heydrick, pinning him fast to the floor. He wiped a smear of blood from his face and tried vainly to lift the heavy strands. They refused to budge.
Ria knelt beside him and tried to shift the coils, but it was no use.
"You'd better go," he said roughly. "They'll be down as soon as they can get to the other elevator ... to make sure of us."
Ria glared at him. "It's my maternal instinct," she said. "I can't leave you."
"You wanted a chance to escape. This is it."
Ria seized the broken brake lever and pried up part of the strands. Heydrick worked himself part way out, but the weight was too much for her strength. The bar twisted out of her hands. Down came the full weight again. Heydrick cried out in agony. She moved the bar and lifted again. This time, he crawled free.