It takes some doing to open the hatch.  Self-cleaning metal can only do so much to overcome years of disuse.  Cross wrestles with the portal's hinge, balancing on the ladder in the hallway with teetering feet.<br/><br/>Finally, he wrenches it open.  A dim tunnel, wide enough for a single person, gapes above.  Its recesses are shaded with suggestion of an awful distance - the five floors up to the top deck, each divided by several meters of circuitry-stuffed steel.