Nate used the opportunity to slip through the doorway, flying over the clothes of the employee. Leaving the clothes behind, Nate soared down the hall. He could feel the effects of Peak Performance wearing thin. He would have to be careful with his last stick. It was his only hope of making it through the obstacle course within Mt. Diablo.
Keeping an eye on his map, Nate found his way to the stairway door. Again, it was locked. Nate tried the same routine. He knocked softly at first, then harder, then he pounded it relentlessly.
This time a set of clothes opened the door from the far side. Nate recognized the clothes from that morning. It was Conner! That made sense. Conner had probably been posted to watch the stairway. When he heard the commotion, he had come to investigate.
Straightening his body, Nate flew over Conner though the top of the doorway. Conner passed beyond the doorway, turning to look up and down the hall. Then he hurried back through the door, shut it, and locked it. He rushed down the stairs. Nate followed.
Conner used a key on the door at the bottom of the stairs. Nate wondered whether they had kept all of these doors locked before last night’s intrusion. When Conner opened the door, Nate darted through the top of it.
Below him, Conner paused, apparently conversing with another person. Nate didn’t recognize the second person’s clothes. After a moment, Conner started down the hall, striding briskly. He was going the same direction Nate wanted to travel.
Nate felt an excited flutter of hope. He had considered trying to blindside Conner with a heavy object in order to take his keycard to Jonas White’s sanctum. But what if Conner was voluntarily heading to the sanctum to report the strange disturbance? Nate kept checking his map as Conner kept making the correct turns.
Sure enough, Nate found himself drifting above and behind Conner as he made his way down the hall toward a sturdy metal door. The metal door matched up with the location of the sanctum on the graph-paper map.
“Keep going, you brainless gorilla,” Nate mouthed, not daring to speak the words even though he felt sure Conner wouldn’t be able to hear them.
Conner paused at the door, looking back down the hall as his wallet came out of his back pocket. A plastic card was removed. Conner swiped the card, then tugged the heavy door open.
Just as Nate was about to slip over Conner and into the sanctum, he heard footfalls from behind. The rhythm was strange. Although each step sounded abnormally loud, there was too much time between them.
Swiveling in the air, Nate saw Katie come tearing around the corner at the end of the hall. Her eyes locked on Nate as she came bounding forward, devouring nearly twenty feet per stride. Her normally immaculate hair was disheveled, with part of it slashed away parallel to a clotted gash along her cheek. Scratches crisscrossed her face, the tip of her nose was gone, and it looked like wild animals had savaged her bodysuit. Her left arm was missing at the elbow. Despite her many injuries, no fresh blood flowed.
Apparently responding to a signal from within the sanctum, Conner moved to close the door. Nate knifed through just before it slammed shut.
Conner had shut himself and Katie out of the sanctum. For the moment, Nate was alone with a crowd of wax figures and a fancy black robe with gold embroidery that could only belong to Jonas White. The black robe stood near the wax figure of Katie Sung. The wax figure had injuries to match Katie’s, including the scratches on her face and the missing forearm. Needles of varying size protruded all over the wax figure, and Jonas continued to insert more.
Nate saw the jade urn in the recess on the far side of the room. It was the only object that fit the description. He flew to the recessed shelf, grabbed the top of the vase, and yanked.
It didn’t budge.
Behind Nate, the door to the sanctum opened. Katie sprang through before Conner heaved it closed. Although she had entered, he remained outside. Evidently Conner realized he was defending Jonas from invisible intruders, but he didn’t understand that they kept slipping by him. Nate wondered how much Katie had communicated to Jonas via seashell.
Instead of yanking, Nate gave the urn a steady pull and felt it begin to tip. It was apparently held in place similarly to how the Protector had been anchored to its pedestal, as if by unseen magnets.
With a shrieking battle cry, Katie came flying at Nate, one foot outstretched. Nate had to soar away or she would have demolished him. Her foot hit the wall instead of his head. She landed nimbly. The urn remained upright.
Nate flew away from her as she gave pursuit. Katie leapt around the room almost as if she could fly as well. Nate made no effort to engage her. He had seen how hard she could kick and punch. One blow might be all she needed to finish him.
He tried to swerve back toward the urn, but she knew what he wanted and kept cutting him off. Gradually she herded Nate toward a corner.
Jonas toddled away from Katie’s wax figure toward the figure of Nate. A knife emerged from his robe.
Nate realized that if things didn’t change quickly, Katie would corner him and take him down. He crammed his final stick of Peak Performance into his mouth.
Jonas stabbed the figure of Nate in the back of the head. Slashing the throat, he removed the wax head from the body. Nate winced but felt no effect from the attack.
As the Peak Performance entered his system, Nate saw the room more clearly. He knew what he had to do.
Nate flew back into the wall as if he didn’t know it was there. With triumph in her damaged features, Katie sprang at him, her foot snapping forward with a vicious kick. But Nate anticipated the move based on the pattern of her offense and swooped under her attack, his nose inches from the floor.
If he went for the urn, Nate knew Katie would get to him before he could overturn it. So instead he flew at her wax figure. First he kicked the figure in the stomach with everything he had. The wax figure toppled.
Behind him, Katie collapsed, vomiting violently.
Nate crouched and began stripping away the acupuncture needles all over the wax figure. Behind him, Katie went into wild convulsions.
Nate noticed the robe making its way toward the wax representation of Mozag, knife upraised. Again, Nate doubted whether he could tip the urn in time. Instead he flew to the robe, grabbed the back of it, and jerked it hard. Jonas had always appeared unsteady. Sure enough, the robe fell to the ground and the knife skidded free. The sleeves of the robe reached toward one of the invisible legs, as if grasping an injury.
Nate flew to the urn. Bracing a foot against the wall, he seized the top with both hands and pulled steadily. The urn tipped a little at first. As Nate kept straining, and the urn tipped more, it began to lean easier. The urn came free, and Nate carried it away from the niche.
Raising the urn over his head, Nate crashed it down to the tile floor with all of his might. It burst into countless fragments, great and small. For an instant the light in the room dimmed and an indefinable energy throbbed through Nate, making him a little queasy. Then the moment passed, and all seemed as it had before.
Nate took no time to celebrate. He was chewing his last stick of gum, and he had a simulacrum to destroy. First he took out his stone coin, looked through it, aimed it upward, and said, “Utcha.”
Nothing happened.
Apparently he needed to actually be looking at the sky.
Nate flew to where Katie lay inert. Noticing a telltale bulge in a zippered pocket on her side, he removed a keycard and a small set of keys. Nate flew to the sanctum door, swiped the card, and shoved it open.
Conner’s clothes waited outside. Nate flew down the hall faster than he would have dared without Peak Performance. He swooped around corners and sped down halls until he reached the staircase door. He unlocked it with the second key he tried, sailed up the stairs, then unlocked the door at the top with the same key. Nate flew to an EMPLOYEES ONLY door that he remembered led outside, unlocked it, and flew out.
Flying to Mt. Diablo from here would consume too much valuable time. Removing the coin from his po
cket, Nate peered through it, looked up, and said, “Utcha.”
Nate shrank down to a point and unfolded hovering above Uweya. Without pausing, without looking at his surroundings, Nate peered through the coin, found Mt. Diablo, zoomed in close, found the SUV abandoned on the slope, then traced the path they had taken up the slope to the cavity they had entered. Enhanced as he was by Peak Performance, the task felt simple.
“Utcha,” Nate said again.
He folded into himself and was suddenly standing on the slope not far from the little opening. Nate flew to the entrance and slithered through. He soared through the cave at a high speed. He snatched the electric lantern near the lip of the crater and dove into the enormous hole. Earlier he had descended slowly. Now he rocketed straight down, faster than he would have fallen had he simply jumped off the edge. The speed was essential. If his Peak Performance ran out before he reached the deadly obstacle course, he would get mutilated.
Nate slowed so he could make the turns where the shaft elbowed, then raced to the room with the Gate, through the next room, through the cramped hallway, and into the chamber that led to the obstacle course. He noticed the clothes of Lindy, Chris, and Risa flying around. Destroying Jonas White’s Source had freed them. He also noticed the clothes belonging to Cleon and Jeanine.
The Peak Performance still felt fully operational. Nate paused for a moment in front of the churning corridor of blades, spears, and columns. He had been in such a hurry to get here that he hadn’t stopped to consider whether he still needed to be here.
Did he still need to destroy Uweya?
Jonas White was in trouble. All of his simulacra were now useless. Some of his top people were down for the count. Jonas was probably not in a position to come get Uweya at this point.
But what if Jonas escaped? He knew where to look now. It would only be a matter of time before he tried again.
Even if Jonas was captured, how many of his people knew about Uweya? The secret was out. The way was now open. If Nate left Uweya unguarded, somebody would come and claim it.
As much as he hated the thought of passing through the deadly corridor again, he could not leave a voodoo Earth lying around for any wacko to come and claim. The Hermit and the Graywaters had been right—Uweya was too powerful to entrust to anyone. For the safety of the whole planet, Uweya had to be destroyed.
Nate knew he couldn’t wait. If his Peak Performance started to wear off, he would never survive the obstacles ahead. So he zoomed forward.
Dodging through the brutal obstacles was no easier the second time. Nate took a similar route as he had the first time, with many minor variations. Once again, he progressed gradually, his body spinning and flipping into strange positions to avoid the endless dangers. He received nicks and scratches and plenty of close shaves, but he emerged alive at the other end.
This time the door beyond the obstacles was already open. Nate flew into the domed chamber. He saw the clothes belonging to Ted and Celia in motion, and felt relieved to see that Katie hadn’t incapacitated them.
A large sphere hung in the center of the room, roughly twelve feet in diameter. Unlike the appearance of Uweya in the real world, this Uweya glowed brightly, its vivid surface an ever-changing palette of swirling color. Amid the dynamic hues, the forms of the oceans and continents remained visible, although the shapes undulated and blurred as diverse colors migrated across the globe.
Nate flew over to the worktable where Ted had gotten him a coin. Several coins lay in plain view, and he claimed one. It seemed identical to the coin in his pocket. Flying close to the brilliant sphere, Nate held the coin in his palm. When he threw in the coin, would Uweya be destroyed instantly? Or might he have a chance to try to fly out and look at the sky using the coin in his pocket?
Iwa Iza was supposed to be an amazing magician. Nate hoped he wouldn’t have designed Uweya so that whoever unmade it would be killed.
Bracing himself, Nate searched for the courage to proceed. Throwing the coin might be the last thing he ever did. But it would make his family safe from the threat of Uweya. His friends would also be safer. In thousands of years, nobody had been in a position to remove this danger from the world. Even though he might die, he had to take the chance. He focused on the hope that he would live.
Nate flipped the simulcratic coin with his thumb toward the glowing sphere. After spinning through the air, it disappeared inside the globe. For a moment the sphere swelled and became blinding, then Nate experienced a sensation as if he and everything around him were being drawn into the globe and imploding down to a singularity. As he shrank, an instinctive terror of death rose within him. This could be it. There might not even be a body left to recover.
*****
When Nate expanded out of that point where all of Uweya had united, he found himself back in the room with Ted and Celia. They stood gaping at him. Looking up, Nate saw that he was sitting below where Uweya had previously hovered. Except Uweya was gone. Dust swirled in the air and was spread on the floor. Glancing over his shoulder, Nate saw Katie Sung lying motionless.
“You did it,” Celia gasped, her gaze fixed on him.
“It’s gone,” Ted said, astonished. “You survived.”
The ground rumbled threateningly.
“Guys?” Nate asked.
A second rumbling was accompanied by some heavy quaking. A few blocks fell from the ceiling, streaming trails of dust.
“This place is old,” Celia said. “It might not hold together without the power source.”
“It might be deliberately rigged to fall apart without the power source,” Ted added.
“Time to go?” Nate asked.
A stronger quake hit. Ted and Celia were already running for the door. Nate glanced at Katie. She had fought against him, but he couldn’t just leave her to die. He went to her and slapped her cheek. Her eyelids twitched. He slapped her harder. “Get up!”
Katie groaned.
Nate shook her shoulder. “Get up or you’re dead!”
Her eyes opened. “You?” Katie asked, disoriented.
“I trashed Jonas White’s power source and also demolished Uweya,” Nate explained hastily. “This place is coming down.”
The strongest, longest quake yet made Nate fly into the air to avoid the shaking. Stone blocks and dirt cascaded from the ceiling, some landing nearby. Fragments skittered across the vibrating floor.
Katie sat up, eyes closed, legs crossed, her remaining hand in her lap. She breathed deeply, as if meditating. Her posture became more erect.
Nate realized she must be trying to recharge her batteries. “We need to hurry,” he said.
There was a lull in the shaking. “You go,” she said. “I’ll be along.”
Nate zoomed for the doorway. He could feel his Peak Performance wearing off. The obstacles in the corridor beyond the doorway no longer functioned. The blades had stopped swiping, the spikes had stopped stabbing, and the pendulums no longer scythed back and forth. Nate caught up with Ted and Celia as they made their way through the stalled traps.
Chris and Lindy came flying toward them. Their appearance surprised Nate—he had assumed they would already be headed for the exit.
“Nate!” Chris called. “You’re alive!”
“We have to get out of here!” Nate yelled. “I wrecked Uweya! This place is falling apart!”
Another round of heavy quaking added emphasis to his warning. One of the heavy pendulums dropped to the floor, leaned into the wall, and came to rest against several inert blades.
“Who are you with?” Chris asked as he reached Nate.
“Ted and Celia Graywater,” Nate said. “They’re on our side.”
“Lindy, get the girl,” Chris ordered. “Nate, help me with the guy.”
Nate was surprised to see Lindy scoop Celia into her arms and fly off down the corridor with only a little extra difficulty. Celia was fairly short and slender, but it was still impressive.
“As flying tanks you can handle more weig
ht?” Nate asked.
“Quite a bit more,” Chris said. “But I may need help with the guy.”
Nate grabbed one of Ted’s legs. Chris grabbed the rest of him. Nate wasn’t sure how much he was helping, since Chris bore most of the weight, but together they shuttled Ted from the corridor.
Looking back, Nate saw Katie rushing through the corridor. Occasionally she would make a larger leap than seemed possible, but she was far from using the impressive bounding stride he had witnessed in Arcadeland on Uweya. Judging by her pained expression, her current effort was requiring all of her energy and concentration.
The quaking was getting more severe, and the pauses were becoming less frequent. Risa flew to greet Nate and Chris in the room beyond the cluttered corridor.
“Where’s Jeanine?” Nate asked.
“She ran back toward the entrance with Cleon,” Risa said.
“Stop her,” Nate said to Chris. “We’ll need her help to get everyone out.”
“I’m on it,” Chris said, setting Ted down. Extending a fist, Chris shot ahead.
Lindy put Celia down as well.
“Come on,” Nate urged. “You can run. The ground is smoother from here on out. This way.”
Nate led the way at a pace that allowed the others to keep up. In the next room, Nate noticed the Protector back on the pedestal. He suspected that Jeanine and Cleon had probably tried to seal them in. Fortunately, without Uweya functioning, the Protector was no longer operational.
They hurried through the gate and into the next room. Glancing back, Nate saw Katie trip on her way through the gate. She didn’t get up.
The quaking worsened. Nate kept his eyes up to avoid falling blocks and stones. Here and there, boulder-sized chunks of stonework crashed down to the floor.