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She leaned forward in her chair and se, sad smiles, full of belief

"The ship, Peter," said Lacey "A to make sense of thissharply, she darted her eyes around the roo?"

But she seemed not to have heard hione on too long, I’ather your things"

He was taken aback, his e currents "We’re leaving?"

He rose to discover A in the doorway to the bedroo behind her Whatever had affected Lacey had affected her also; her face was lit with a sudden urgency

"Lacey-" Aan

"I know He will try to be here before daybreak" Drawing on her cloak, Lacey gave her insistent gaze to Peter once ht was suddenly banished, replaced by a sense of erasp "Lacey, who are you talking about? Who’s co?"

But then he looked at A "Quickly, Peter"

"Lacey, you don’t understand" He felt weightless, benuht with, not even a blade "We’re totally unarmed I’ve seen what he can do"

"There are weapons uns and knives," the woman replied Her face held no fear, only a sense of purpose "It is time for you to see it"

"See what?"

"What you cae"

Chapter SIXTY-EIGHT

Peter in darkness: Lacey was leading theid as blowing through the trees, a ghostlythe scene in a tre the shadows lurch and sway around hie and descended another The snoas deep here, blown into drifts with a hard carapace of crust They were on the south side of the mountain now; Peter heard, below him, the sound of the river

He felt it before he saw it: a vastness of space opening before hi away He reached out reflexively to find A step and the darkness would s him

"This way," Lacey called from ahead "Hurry, hurry"

He followed the sound of her voice What he thought was a sheer drop was actually a rocky decline, steep but passable A path He took a breath of icy air, willing his fear away, and followed

The path grew narrower, running horizontally to theto it like a catwalk To his left, sheer rock, glinting with e into nothing Even to look at it was to be swept away; he kept his eyes forward The wo at the far edge of his vision Where was Lacey taking them? What was the weapon she had spoken of? He could hear the voice of the river again, far below The stars shone hard and pure above his face, like chips of ice

He turned a corner and stopped; Lacey and A in the mountain’s face The hole was as tall as he was, its depthless interior a maw of blackness

"This way," said Lacey

Two steps, three steps, four; the darkness enveloped hi them inside the mountain He remembered the tin of matches in his coat He stopped and struck one, his insensate fingers fu currents of air puffed the flame away

Lacey’s voice, from up ahead: "Hurry, Peter"

He inched his way forward, each step an act of faith Then he felt a hand on his arm, a fir at all Despite the cold he had begun to sweat under his parka Where was Lacey? He had spun around, searching for the opening to orient himself, when from behind hi door

Everything blazed with light

They were in a long hallway, carved from the mountain The walls were lined with pipes andat a breaker panel on the wall adjacent to the entrance The rooh above

"There’s power?"

"Batteries The doctor showed "

"These aredifferent"

Lacey swung the heavy door closed behind them

"He called it Level Five I will show you Please come"

The hallway led to a wider space, sunk in darkness Lacey h the soles of his wet boots he could feel a kind of huhts buzzed and flickered to life

The room appeared to be so over all-the gurney and the long, tall counter covered with dusty equipe; a tray of syringes, still sealed in plastic, and resting on a long, rust-stained shawl of fabric, a line of metal probes and scalpels At the back of the room, in a nest of conduits, hat appeared to be a battery stack