TWENTY-FOUR.

Floyd looked at her with half a smile. "Ringing?"

"Ringing."

"And that's worth at least two murders, and maybe a lot more than that? If you're going to build a bell,

build a G.o.dd.a.m.ned bell."

"They're not G.o.dd.a.m.ned bells," she said.

Floyd pointed the b.u.t.t of the automatic in her direction. "For a nice girl from Dakota, you've sure

developed a foul mouth all of a sudden."

"You think this is foul," Auger said, "you should stick around a while."

"You know, you can knock that enigmatic act off any time you like. I've about had it up to here."

He had just finished speaking when there was a crash of collapsing masonry, shaking the entire room.

Fist-sized shards of cement dropped from the ceiling, filling the air with powdery grey dust. Auger

coughed, shielding her eyes and mouth with her hand.

"That sounded close," she said. "Maybe they're already demolishing part of building fifteen. We've got more than we expected: let's get out before we're buried alive."

"For once I couldn't agree more."

They climbed the ladder back to the balcony level, Floyd leading. The building shook again, more of the ceiling coming loose. A gap as wide as a man had appeared in it, revealing severed wood and concrete,

pipes and electrical wires. Motors roared overhead, revving and ebbing as the bulldozers surged back and forth. The cast-metal plinth of a lathe or a drill leaned precariously over the hole.

"Move," Auger hissed.

They ran around the balcony until they reached the door into the stairwell. Floyd pushed on it, trying to

coax it open. When it refused to yield, he leaned his entire bulk against it and pushed until his face was a mask of effort, but the door showed no sign of moving.

"It's stuck," he said, gasping for breath.

"It can't be stuck," Auger said. "We just came through it."

"It was stiff, though. The whole frame must have subsided. I can't get it open."

"Why did you ever close it?"

"I wanted to hear if anyone came after us. I figured they wouldn't be able to get the door open without making a sound."

"I bet you're regretting that particular bright idea now, aren't you?"

Floyd gave the door one last shove, but it was obvious that even their combined efforts would not be enough to get it open. "I can see you're the kind of person who likes to say 'I told you so,'" he said.

"Only when people deserve it. Now what are we going to do?"

"Find another way out of this building, that's what."

"There isn't one."

"Down the ladder again," Floyd said. "Our only hope is that there may be doors at the other end of the

room."

She looked at him dubiously. "And if there are, do you think we stand any more chance of getting them open?"

"Until we've tried, we won't know."

They hurried down to the floor, skirting around the sphere and the gas tank to reach the far end of the room. There were indeed doors there, twice as high as Floyd and wide enough to drive a truck through.

The doors were obviously meant to slide back into the walls on either side, but when Floyd tried to part

them, they remained as resolutely fixed as the door to the stairwell. Again he screwed up his face in determination and again the doors stayed put.

"I think they must be locked from the other side," he said, between heavy, panting breaths.

"Then we're really up s.h.i.t creek without a paddle, aren't we?"

Floyd looked at her, somewhat stunned by her choice of words despite the desperateness of their

situation. "Did you really just say that?"

"I'm a little tense," she said defensively.

"Well," Floyd said, "now that you mention it, a paddle would actually be quite useful. Or better still a

crowbar."

"What?"

"I think I can see a gap between these doors. If we could wedge something into it, we might be able to

prise them open enough to squeeze through."

"Into another underground room?"

"No-I think I can see daylight. Look around. There's got to be something we can use."

There was another violent crash. With a drawn-out groan, the plinth and lathe finally slid through the

hole in the ceiling, dragging several tons of masonry and metal with them. The ma.s.s of twisted metal hung above them, suspended by a few pipes and wires that had become wrapped around it.

It was directly over the sphere.

"That thing's not going to stay up there much longer," Auger said.

"So let's get out of here before it falls. You check the left side, I'll check the right. Any piece of metal will do."

Auger started searching her side of the room, rummaging through the mess they had already created.

"And be quick!" Floyd shouted.

Auger's hands fell on a piece of perforated metal framing. It was broken at one end, tapered to just the

right shape to fit between the doors. "Wendell! I've got something." She held the makeshift tool up for inspection.

"Attagirl. That'll do nicely."

She jogged back to Floyd as fast as her heels would allow and pa.s.sed the piece of metal to him. He

hefted it, like a hunter evaluating a new spear.

"Hurry," Auger said.

He slipped the sharp end into the fine crack between the two doors and started levering, applying his full

weight to the task. The huge doors creaked and groaned. Simultaneously, the room shook and the hanging lathe slipped down a good half-metre before jerking to a halt again, suspended even more improbably.

"It's working," Floyd said. "I think it's going-"

Something gave a metallic crack and the doors sprang apart by a thumb's width. A fan of dreary daylight sliced the room in two.

"That's a good start," Auger said. "Now the rest."

"I'm working on it." Floyd renewed his struggle, adjusting the position of his feet to optimise his

bracing position. "But I'm not sure how long this thing is going to last. See if you can't rustle up another one, in case this one buckles."

She stood rooted to the spot, desperate to slip through the crack.

"Verity! Get searching!"

Stumbling on her heels, she began to search the other side of the room. She felt her trousers rip against sharp metal and something cut into her knee. Tripping, she fell forward, her hand reaching out for support. Miraculously it closed around an iron bar.

Picking herself up, barely registering the pain in her leg, she hefted the new prize. "Got something!" "Bring it here. I think this boy's about to-" The fan of light widened. The gap in the door was now big enough to push a face through.