My Porsche 911 has a black hole! Repairing a Hand Throttle and Loosing Clip!

Heater control on the right, equalizer bar below. The tube is the shifter connector that goes to a back coupling.

Hi folks -- a bit bored this weekend as I had a sore knee after playing tennis Friday night. So I decided to install a new hand throttle "schlepper" with my extra time as I bowed out of a USTA tennis match Saturday. I began by taking out the drivers' side seat to make things easy. Work went as planned until I was putting everything back today. The last big thing to do -- put in the clip pin that connects the handbrake ratchet with the equalizer, and I dropped the thing into the hole. OK it should go very far, right? Well, somehow I can't find it -- even after shining a bright light from the other end of the tunnel and dragging the tunnel with a magnet! Where the hell did it go? So now I have a hand throttle that works, but a hand brake that does not. And I have to find a clip!