Jade was not sure exactly what he was warning her about. Shah appeared to have come through for them, turning on the Changelings and sparing Professor. She swung the barrel of the pistol around, aiming it at the dark-haired woman in sunglasses who seemed completely oblivious to what had just occurred. That was when Shah finally noticed her. He spun around on his heel and aimed his pistol right at her.
Jade was caught off guard by the suddenness of this apparent reversal, but her nerves were already primed for action. Reflexively, she brought her own weapon to bear on him. In the brief instant that followed, she read his intention. His was not a reflex action brought on by her unexpected return. He meant to kill her.
He fired.
She fired… Or would have if Professor had not caught her in a low tackle that not only rushed her into the darkness behind them, but also removed her from Shah’s field of fire. In the tumult that followed, Professor managed to relieve her of the unfired pistol, whereupon he rolled onto his back and pumped several rounds in Shah’s direction. Jade wrestled the second pistol from it holster, but Shah was already gone, fleeing back down the rotunda. The woman was gone too, either having fled or in Shah’s company.
Professor looked over at Jade, panting to catch his breath, just as she was. His lips moved but she couldn’t make out what he said, so she answered simply, “Hey.”
He flashed her a goofy grin then got to his feet, hands gripping the pistol, and started forward. “Shah!” he shouted.
She heard that just fine, but no answer was forthcoming. “What the hell is he doing?” she said.
Professor returned an uncertain headshake and kept moving. He said something, stay behind me, or keep your head down. The ringing in her ears was gradually subsiding, but he was turned away from her and whispering. She hefted the pistol, muzzle pointing up, and followed.
They crept along at first, but then quickened their pace when it became evident that Shah was not waiting to ambush them. When they reached the doorway connecting the rotunda to the landing outside, Jade glimpsed movement on the spiral staircase overhead; Shah and the woman ascending but making slow progress, probably because the latter was being dragged along unwillingly.
Professor shouted again. “Shah! Let’s talk!”
Shah’s answer was a fusillade of rounds fired down the center of the shaft. The angles were all wrong for him to hit them, but the resulting spray of stone chips and bullet fragments drove Jade and Professor back through the opening.
“Idiot,” Professor rasped. He looked at Jade. “You okay?”
She laughed despite herself. “Stupid question.” At least I can hear again, she thought. “You?”
“Better than my evil twin.” He nodded in the direction of the stairwell. “What do you think got into Shah?”
Jade bit her lip guiltily. “You remember how I had to make a deal with him? Well, the deal was that if we found anything that might call the origins of Islam into question, I would let him destroy it.”
Something like anger or disappointment flickered across Professor’s face, but before he could voice his disapproval, Jade went on. “I didn’t have much choice. There was literally no one else I could trust. At least with Shah, I knew where I stood. And he did help. I just didn’t think we would actually find anything here that would fit the bill.”
“You really blew that call.” Professor’s demeanor softened a little. “I suppose given the circumstances it was the right thing to do. And I am grateful that you were willing to do that for me. So what do you think pushed him over the edge?”
“This place. It’s like a gigantic infrasound hallucination machine.” She decided now wasn’t the time to go into detail about what she had seen in her own frequency-induced vision.
Professor nodded slowly. “The Changelings told him that Muhammad and all the other prophets revered by Muslims came here to receive visions from God. I suppose, from his point of view, something like that — an alternative version of events that doesn’t agree with what the Quran teaches — could be construed as blasphemy.”
“And since he can’t destroy the vault, he decided the next best thing was to kill all the witnesses. The Changelings and us.”
Professor nodded. “There’s only one way out of here. If he’s up there waiting for us, we’ll have to shoot it out. But he’s already fired eight rounds. I counted. That means he has seven more, eight max if those Changelings kept one in the chamber, which I doubt. He has no training, no fire discipline. All we have to do is make some noise and get him to shoot off the rest of that magazine. Then we’ll leave on our own terms. Over his dead body if necessary.”
“I’m remembering the last time you counted the bad guy’s bullets. It didn’t end well.”
“Very funny. This time, I know he doesn’t have any extra rounds. Besides, you’re hardly in a position to be questioning my judgment.”
Jade thought better of replying. She gestured to the doorway. “Lead the way.”
He flashed a grim smile then stuck his head out. “Shah! We’re coming for you!”
There was no answering fire, so he circled the landing and started up the steps. Jade stayed close on his heels. The stairs were familiar to her, the memory of traveling them implanted during her vision, but it wasn’t until she was halfway up that she realized that she had been here before, actually as well as virtually. She had fallen through the central shaft after solving the ring puzzle and opening the door to the vault.
The memory nagged, a dire warning of a danger that she couldn’t quite wrap her thoughts around. Not Shah… Something else.
The stairs. Something about the stairs. Where did they come from?
One moment, she had been in the submerged chamber, sliding the pieces of the ring puzzle into place. The next she was falling, caught in the rush of water pouring down through the midst of the steps.
The steps….
In her mind’s eye, she saw it happening, like a video playing in slow motion. The last piece of stone sliding into place, the rings completed, and then….
And then the sphere began to move. It had seemed random from her perspective, trapped in the flooded chamber, but it was anything but. The movement of the sphere was as precise as clockwork. As was what happened next.
The sphere had opened like the petals of a flower, the individual tiles shuffling and rearranging to form the stairs that led down to the vault itself. The unfurling had of course triggered the flood that washed Jade away, and that indeed had been somewhat more chaotic, but the unfolding of the sphere chamber had been exceedingly exact. When the puzzle was solved, the door opened. Simple as that.
And what happens when the door closes?
“We have to get off these stairs.” She said it once, too softly to be heard. Then repeated it again, louder so that Professor could hear.
She saw the unasked question and knew that if she didn’t at least try to explain, precious moments that might mean the difference between life and death might be lost.
“Once he reaches the top, the lock will reset. These steps will disappear.”
Professor seemed to grasp the broader point. “And we’ll be trapped in here.”
Before Jade could respond to his hasty conclusion, Professor leaned into the stairs and poured on a burst of speed that she was hard-pressed to match. She heard him shout again, and then the noise of multiple reports filled the shaft. She threw herself flat as stone chips and dust filled the air. Jade tried to count the number of rounds fired, but it was difficult to distinguish one shot from the next, to say nothing of differentiating Professor’s gun from Shah’s.