He leaped off his horse and sprinted toward the tall set of double doors straight ahead.
“Keep an eye out! And keep the horses close! Bring the saddlebags!”
The others dismounted behind him. Ajay looked back toward the plaza and as Elise gathered the horses, the others followed Will.
“Anything back there?” Will shouted as he got to the doors.
“Nothing yet,” said Ajay.
Each door sported a long, thick, vertical iron pull. Will stopped and gripped one of them, then paused to catch his breath. Nick and Jericho ran up beside him, and he waited for Ajay and Elise to join them. The horses gathered in a group under the porch nearby.
“If there’s any of them in here, we go in swinging,” said Will.
They all looked at him, waiting, eager, ready to engage. No one looked frightened, not even Ajay. Their readiness filled him with confidence and pride.
“Whatever happens from here,” he said, “it’s been my privilege to call you my friends.”
He pulled on the handle, and the door moved toward him. Immensely heavy, it pivoted almost effortlessly on some concealed hinging and opened.
They stepped into a circular atrium and the door whispered closed behind them. There was dark marble flooring underfoot and scaled-down decorative columns distributed around the perimeter. The space was lit softly and evenly from some unseen sources. A dozen symmetrical niches held large urns or statues of abstract shapes. Their footsteps echoed sharply as they crossed the marble floor.
There were no other doors.
“What the heck…,” said Nick.
“Spread out,” said Will. “Look around. There’s got to be another way out of here.”
“It must be a puzzle room,” said Ajay, his eyes wide open, moving toward one of the niches.
“Don’t anybody touch anything,” said Elise. “I’m looking at you, Nick.”
Nick withdrew his hand as he was about to put it on one of the statues. “Okay, okay. So what do we do?”
“Let Ajay figure it out,” said Will.
Which took him all of about thirty seconds. He walked once all the way around the room, looking at each of the statues in the niches. Then he made a second trip and touched a particular part of each statue in a certain way, ignoring the urns altogether. Moments after he touched the last one, they heard a series of gears engage all around the edges of the room, then one large clunk and the entire floor began to sink, smoothly and evenly.
“How’d you know how to do that?” asked Nick.
“It was exceedingly obvious,” said Ajay.
“Not to me.”
“I’d explain, old boy,” said Ajay, “but I’m afraid you’d find it quite tedious.”
“You share their DNA,” said Jericho. “He’s tapping into what they know.”
Ajay smiled enigmatically. “Something like that.”
The walls turned into a circle of blank black stone around them as they descended past the room’s floor level, and the only light now was what reached them from the atrium above. The group instinctively moved together into the center of the floor, looking up and outward in every direction. As the light faded, Nick pulled a flare out of his bag and ignited it, holding it aloft.
“They had one of these elevators at Cahokia, too, remember?” said Elise.
“From the cathedral to the boneyard,” said Nick. “Good times.”
“That was a rattletrap,” said Will. “It didn’t look like this.”
“They appear to have improved their technology in the interim immensely,” said Ajay.
“Yeah, smooth ride,” said Nick. “I just hope we’re going the right way.”
“I think you can count on that,” said Will. “It only goes one way.”
“Not necessarily,” said Nick. “I think it probably comes back up, too.”
Ajay sighed and looked back up at the receding atrium, which had almost disappeared from sight.
“Another fifty feet or so,” said Ajay.
“Get ready,” said Will.
The elevator’s speed began to ease. As they continued to descend, a faint light source appeared from one side, revealing a gap in the round stone wall.
They all turned to face it.
WILL’S RULES FOR LIVING #16:
WHEN YOU REACH THE END OF YOUR ROPE, DON’T HANG AROUND.
The elevator floor settled to a silent stop. No one moved for a moment. Through the tall broad gap ahead, they saw a passageway of smooth black stone, at least thirty feet high and about ten across. A short distance ahead, it curved around a corner, where a faint light source sent out a constant pale blue glow. Will felt fresh air circulating around them, cool and slightly moist. It was so quiet he could hear his own heart beating.
“Lead the way,” said Jericho.
Will stepped cautiously down off the marble floor into the passageway and the others followed.
Nick turned back to the elevator and held up a hand. “Stay,” he said firmly.
“Keep the flare at the back,” said Ajay. “I’ll see more without it.”
Without being prompted, Ajay took the lead, trailing a hand along the wall as he walked forward at a measured pace. Will and Elise followed close behind him. Ajay reached the curve and started around the turn.
Elise glanced over at Will.
Should we try to find out what’s ahead of us? I can echolocate; you can use the Grid.
Before Will could answer, Ajay’s voice broke into both of their minds:
It would be best if you let me handle this for the moment, he sent. And, yes, I can hear you both now.
Will and Elise looked at each other.
“He’s changing a lot faster than the rest of us,” she whispered. “Does that worry you?”
Will raised a finger to his lips, but nodded.
Ajay’s voice continued in their heads:
Looking back, it occurs to me that something within the Never-Was has been conspiring to bring us here since the moment we arrived. The way that paths appeared before us, the landscape changing to encourage our following a certain direction. As if the environment itself was guiding us along, guiding our progress to this point. I wonder if you might have any theories about that?
Will considered it for a moment before answering. I can only come up with one.
I’m most interested to hear it.
Dave.
Interesting. I suspect we’re about to find out if you’re right.
Will watched Ajay’s hand trail along the wall, his nails lightly scraping the concrete. They walked for what seemed like a long time before Ajay “spoke” again.
That glow is emanating from a large and rather peculiar source in a large room at the end of this passageway. I’m not detecting the presence of any of the Makers, or hostiles of any kind for that matter, at least for the moment.
That’s good to know, sent Will.
And you might as well have Nick leave the flare here in the passage. We won’t be needing it where we’re going.
Will turned to Nick and gestured for him to leave the flare. He tossed it back around the turn, which allowed them to realize that the blue glow from ahead had brightened to the point where it offered enough light for them to see all by itself. Will locked eyes with both Jericho and Nick and knew they were preparing for battle.
The curve of the hallway finally ended in another straightaway and some thirty steps beyond that it came to an end and emptied into the space Ajay had mentioned.
The room had been chiseled or hollowed out of that same black stone, rough-hewn and circular, with a high rounded ceiling and walls. In the center of the room, suspended six feet off the ground in midair by no apparent means of support, was the source of the blue light: a gigantic pale blue gemstone, multifaceted, as if cut by a precision jeweler. It was at least twelve feet tall and half as wide. The blue light radiated from it steadily, bright enough while they were this close to it to cast their shadows behind them.
After a f
ew moments, they all shielded their eyes from it. The light was strange. It did more than just fill the air around them; it almost had texture, and if you stared directly at the center of the gem, its intensity was nearly blinding.
Despite that, Will felt some other quality inside the light, something familiar and comforting but also a little terrifying. A feeling that he’d been missing for a long time.
“What is this?” asked Elise.
“Some kind of power source maybe,” said Jericho.
“Or maybe it’s like the secret gizmo the Makers all worship or something,” said Nick. “Their big sacred whatchamacallit.”
“No, that’s not it,” said Will.
Will reached into his bag for something he hadn’t needed since they got to the Never-Was: his dark glasses. He slipped them on and now could look directly at the gem. The lenses cut the intensity of the light and allowed him to see what was right in front of them.
“It’s a prison,” he said. “Dave’s in there.”
Suspended inside the jewel, in his full angelic gold-white platinum armor, feathered wings spreading out behind him, his gleaming sword pulled halfway out of the sheath on his belt, was Dave. His image was fractured and multiplied by the many facets of the jewel, but Will could still make out the ferocious expression flash-frozen on his face, as if he’d been attacked unaware and then captured and cast inside this bizarre container all in the blink of an eye. He looked paler than Will remembered, and the scars on his face even more vivid, like a figure in a wax museum.
Both Ajay and Nick pulled out their dark glasses, put them on, and looked up at the jewel.
“No way,” said Nick. “That’s Dave?”
“That would explain why you haven’t heard from him,” said Jericho.
“This must have happened right after we talked to him,” said Elise. “He said they were onto him, remember?”
“Yup,” said Will.
“Dude, you never told us Dave was a freakin’ angel,” said Nick.
“I don’t know if he’s an angel,” said Will. “He prefers the term Wayfarer, or that’s what he told me they call themselves.”
“How can he breathe in this thing?” asked Nick.
“He doesn’t need to breathe,” said Will. “At least I can’t ever remember seeing him breathe.”
“He’s dead, remember?” said Elise.
“Right. So angels are dead, then.”
“He’s not an angel,” said Jericho.
“He’s a Wayfarer—and according to him, Wayfarers are dead,” said Will.
“Right. So Wayfarers don’t need to breathe, then, ’cause they’re ghosts.”
“Will you give it a rest?” asked Jericho.
“Yet another confirmation that I’m evolving,” said Ajay, examining the jewel closely. “I’m not finding Nick nearly as irritating as I usually do.”
“Well, I gotta say, for a dead angel dude,” said Nick, “Dave looks like a total badass.”
Will handed his glasses to Elise, and Nick gave his to Jericho so they could take a look.
“Unbelievable,” said Jericho.
“Said the man who can turn into a bear,” said Nick.
“I just have one suggestion,” said Elise.
“What’s that?” asked Nick.
“We’d better bust him out of there, fast, ’cause I think I just heard that elevator start up again.”
Will streaked out into the passageway and came rushing back a few moments later.
“Uh, you’re right,” he said.
“What do you have in mind?” asked Jericho as he handed the glasses back to Will.
Before the words were out of his mouth, Nick had run halfway up one of the walls, sprang off it, somersaulted in midair, and planted both feet into the center of the gemstone with a thunderous stomp.
He dropped straight to the ground and landed on his feet. The jewel didn’t even budge.
“Derp.” Nick shrugged. “Worth a try, right?”
Ajay moved directly underneath it to examine the gem more closely, looking up as he held on to his dark glasses.
“This is far too strong for simple physical attacks to do any damage,” he said. “Although it’s definitely artificial, whatever substance this is shares molecular similarities with diamonds—”
“Hold on, you can see molecules now?” asked Will.
“Oh, yes, and as a result, I believe I may have identified a very slight inherent flaw that could leave it vulnerable to extremely high vibration or—”
“Sound,” said Elise, stepping forward and dropping her saddlebag. “You show me where.”
“How long will it take?” asked Will.
“Difficult to say…but I believe we might just have a chance to crack this, Will,” said Ajay, getting down on his hands and knees and examining the gem from directly underneath. “Although it is certainly not going to be a piece of cake.”
Will handed his dark glasses to Elise. “Wear these. Nick, Coach, come with me,” he said, heading back to the passage. “We’ll have to hold off whatever’s coming down on that platform.”
Will led Nick and Jericho and they ran back down the passageway toward the platform. Will blinked on the Grid as they advanced; nothing showed up ahead of them except the penumbra of the flare Nick had dropped on the ground.
“Grab your flare again, set it wherever you need it to see,” said Will.
“You better go ahead,” said Jericho, stopping with a dour look. “I promised the kid he could watch this time.”
He trotted back down the passageway toward the gem room, calling Ajay’s name.
“He’s gonna get his bear on,” said Nick, glancing after him and whispering to Will. “And Ajay’s gonna watch.”
“Coach is a man of his word.”
“That oughta keep Boy Genius humming for a while,” said Nick as they walked on around the curve. “Something kind of wild’s going down with Ajay, dude.”
“You think?”
“He’s like mutilating right in front of our eyes.”
“Mutating.”
“Right.”
“Be thankful for that. We need Ajay five-point-oh if we’re going to get through this in one piece.”
Nick picked up the burning flare where he’d left it and considered it for a moment. “You know, I’m actually thinking it might be better to stub this one out and fire one smack at ’em with the gun the second they drop down. That should blind ’em good. What do you think?”
“Wait a second—was that you thinking strategically?” asked Will.
“Ajay said we’re all mutating, right? Maybe I’m getting smarter.”
“Not exactly the area where I was expecting improvement,” said Will.
“Maybe I’m about to become a total freakin’ expert on strategery.”
They heard a series of grunts and groans from the passageway behind them, a few gasps from Ajay, the sound of armor hitting the ground, then the thump of heavy padded feet and the bear trotted into view.
“WHERE’S THE DAMN ELEVATOR?” he asked.
“Here comes Grumpy,” said Nick.
Will moved to the end of the corridor, stepped into the shaft, and looked up. “It hasn’t started down yet.” Will heard a high-pitched hum begin behind them and glanced back toward the gem room. “Give a holler when it does. I’m going to check on the others.”
Will sprinted down the passage and reached the inner room within seconds. Ajay stood a short distance from the gem, holding a laser pointer, directing its red beam at a spot just under the jewel’s lower left corner. Elise stood a few feet to Ajay’s right, arms spread and tensed, palms up. Her face clenched in a fierce mask of concentration, her mouth forming a small O, directing a beam of sound just beyond Will’s hearing at the spot where the laser hit the gem. At the point of impact, a thin thread of smoke began to rise, and when Will looked closer, he saw that it also kicked up a faint cloud of powdery dust.
Is it working? Will asked Ajay.
In principle, he replied. Whether it will work in fact still remains to be seen.
“IT’S COMING!” Jericho’s voice rumbled from down the passageway.
Let me know, sent Will.
Will sprinted away, and seconds later joined Nick and the bear inside the elevator shaft, both looking up.
“It just started,” said Nick.
Will could hear the mechanics of the elevator engaging above them, and when he blinked on the Grid, he picked up the shape of the platform dropping steadily toward them.
It was packed from side to side with multiple heat signatures.
“HOW MANY?” asked Jericho.
“Dude, you might want to keep your voice down,” whispered Nick.
Jericho swatted him with a paw, knocking Nick a few feet sideways.
“Hey!”
“There are a lot of them,” said Will softly. “Move back into the passageway.”
They stepped back into the hall. Nick stubbed out the lit flare on the wall, plunging them into darkness; then he pulled out the flare gun and popped a white phosphorous packet into the chamber.
“Light ’em up the second they touch down,” whispered Will.
They waited. It was cool in the passageway, almost cold, and shot through with subterranean damp, but Will felt sweat start to trickle all over his body. He blinked on the Grid again and watched the platform glide down into view. Many of the heat signatures were large and bulky, but none of them were twenty feet tall, and he didn’t sense the same discomfiting presence of a Maker he’d felt at the arcs.
The elevator came to a stop.
Nick pointed the flare gun and fired. Nick, Will, and the bear shielded their eyes. The flare ignited, exploding inside the elevator with a cacophonous blast and erupting with bright white light, revealing that the entire room was chock-full, shoulder to shoulder, of large, threatening, black-clad soldiers. And all of them—with the exception of a few who were either too smart or too slow to not look up at the source of the sound—were disoriented by the explosion above their heads for a long dangerous moment.
They were also all blinded temporarily, and as they staggered around, the next thing any of them saw was a gigantic bear rearing up on its haunches and rattling the walls with a ferocious growl. The bear’s girth filled nearly the entire gap between the elevator and the passageway, and as it swiped its massive paws repeatedly, the front row of soldiers saw their armor torn and rent by its lethal claws. Panic spread quickly through the front ranks as the vanguard tried to push back to the rear to get away and the ones in back tried to push ahead of them to attack the bear.