“See that’s what I really wanted to talk about. Maybe you’ve convinced Shah with that nonsense about being angels, but you’ll have to try a lot harder to convince me.”
“And why would I waste my breath talking to a man who is already dead?”
Professor glanced at the two men but their expressions were as inscrutable as hers.
He had worked all the angles, counted the number of steps separating him from the gunman, rehearsed the moves in his head. In some of the scenarios, he succeeded in killing one of the men, but never both. No matter which of them he attacked first, the other would be able to shoot him dead. There was only one scenario where he did not die. Not right away at least.
“Okay,” he said. “No more wasting our breath then.”
He sprang forward, diving at Gabrielle like a baseball player trying to steal second. He could sense the men behind him tensing in response to the attack, fingers on the triggers of their pistols. He didn’t think they would fire. Not if they were trained as well as he thought they were. Too much chance of a stray round hitting the woman. If he was wrong….
But he wasn’t wrong. The two gunmen held their fire and Professor hit the unsuspecting woman and bowled her over. As they went down, he wrestled her body around, using her as a human shield. To keep them at bay, he wrapped one arm around her neck. “I’ll kill her.”
The threat stopped the two gunmen, but Professor knew the standoff would not last indefinitely. In fact, it would probably not last more than a few seconds. If he made good on his threat, he would be throwing away the only thing keeping him alive, ergo he dared not kill the woman. If the two Changeling gunmen had not figured that out already, they soon would. His only play was to double down.
“Drop the guns or I’ll break her neck,” he snarled. He shook her, hard. “Do it! Now!”
When the men did not comply immediately, Professor knew they had called his bluff. Damn it. Can’t kill her, can’t let her go. What did that leave?
He hauled her erect, lifted her off the ground so that his body was almost completely covered by hers, and started walking backward, in the direction Shah had gone. He had no idea whether he could count on Shah for assistance, but standing still was not an option. Unfortunately, his steady retreat was not much different than remaining where he was. The two gunmen matched him step for step, and he could see them growing bolder with each passing second. One of them would charge, or perhaps both at nearly the same instant, and then the loaded dice would be cast.
“Stop!”
The shout from behind startled Professor so much that he almost stumbled. The two gunmen were equally surprised, and whatever offensive action they had been contemplating was stillborn. The shout had come from Shah.
Professor twisted half-around, careful to keep Gabrielle between himself and the gunmen, and regarded Shah warily. Even a quick glance was enough to confirm that Shah seemed changed by whatever he had experienced in the vault. Though he had been gone for only a couple minutes, he appeared shaken, as if the foundations of his entire life had been hit by a magnitude eight earthquake.
“Atash?” Gabrielle’s voice was barely audible. The pressure of Professor’s arm across her throat made it difficult for her to breathe, much less speak.
“I’m here.” His voice was flat, distant.
Shell-shocked, thought Professor.
He stared at Gabrielle for a moment, then met Professor’s gaze. “Let her go.” It was neither command nor plea, but more an indifferent suggestion.
Professor relaxed his hold enough to let the woman gasp in a hoarse breath, but did not release her. “Not until those guns are on the ground.”
Shah turned to the men. “Do it.”
The two Changelings exchanged a look with each other and with Gabrielle, and then by mutual accord, stooped over and placed their pistols on the cavern floor.
“And the one you took off me,” Professor added.
Kellogg produced the Beretta and laid it beside the others.
“Now, take a great big step back.”
The men conferred silently a second time, then complied.
“Shah, how about you collect those guns.”
Shah knelt and picked up one of the pistols, then used his foot to send first one then the other skittering away down the passage he had earlier disappeared into. Professor frowned as he watched the guns vanish into the shadows, wondering if Shah was not thinking clearly or if he had intentionally deprived him of a weapon.
“Let her go,” Shah said again without looking at Professor. “I need to speak with her.”
Professor let his arm drop, allowing Gabrielle to stumble away. As she did, he tried to move nonchalantly in the direction of the cast-off pistols, but Shah immediately stopped him with a meaningful gesture from his gun hand.
“Damn,” Professor muttered, looking up from the gun pointed at him to meet Shah’s eyes. “Well, I can’t say I didn’t see that coming, but I was hopeful. So, I guess the con worked. You’re buying into the Messianic malarkey?”
Shah ignored the jibe. “Gabrielle, what I saw… Tell me it’s a trick. Special effects or something.”
The blind woman shook her head. “No tricks.”
Shah was not satisfied with the answer. “Jade Ihara said that sound frequencies can trigger hallucinations. Is that what happened?”
“Would you question the means by which God chooses to deliver his message? If he called you on your phone or spoke to you from a television set, would you consider that unseemly? The message is what it is, Atash. There is no god but God, and you are his Prophet.”
Professor studied Shah’s expression. The man did not seem particularly overjoyed by his calling. “The others came here? Muhammad? Jesus?”
“From Adam at the founding of the world, to Bahá'u'lláh.”
Professor recognized the name taken by Mírzá Ḥusayn`Alí Núrí, a Persian Muslim from the 19th Century, who claimed to have received a new revelation from God and subsequently founded the Baha’i religion.
“All came here?” Shah repeated. “Yet there is no mention of this place in any of the Holy writings.”
Gabrielle was visibly displeased by Shah’s refusal to simply embrace his new role in the divine plan. “You are the Prophet. It is for you to decide what you will share, but just as you have questioned the seemliness of the manner in which the revelation was given, know that there are others who would also do so. They might demand to see it for themselves. That is why the prophets of old did not reveal their journeys. And…” She gestured in Professor’s direction. “It is why he can never leave this place.”
“That’s right,” Professor said, sarcastically. “You can’t have me telling the world that your religion is complete hogwash, and that the Wizard is really just a machine being run by a crazy old guy hiding behind a curtain.”
Shah stared at Professor. “A cover up.” It was a statement not a question, but there was nonetheless an undercurrent of disbelief.
Gabrielle’s frown deepened and when she spoke, there was no hiding the disappointment in her tone. “You are the Prophet of God. Start acting like it. He is an unbeliever. His presence here is sacrilege. An affront to God. You know what must be done.” She paused a beat. “It is not necessary for you to do the deed, Atash. Simply give the order and it will be done.”
For several seconds, Shah just stared at the gun in his hand. “No,” he said finally. “I’ll take care of it.”
Then he aimed the gun and fired.