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“I heard an echo,” she whispered “To the left”

Sa a dozen cells, six to a wall For safety purposes the barred steel doors had been removed They stepped into the nearest cell and looked around

While these tunnels were glooht, Sahtroups into threes and fours, then shut off the lights and had everyone stand in silence for thirty seconds Though Sam and Remi had found themselves in similar situations before—most recently in Rum Cay—Château d’If’s cells evoked a unique sense of dread, as though they were sharing the space with still-ihosts

“Enough of this,” Sae

They found the next tunnel farther down the passageway on their right This one was slightly longer and contained twenty cells Movingcell tunnel after cell tunnel until they reached the end of the passagehere they found a wooden door It was closed but had neither latch nor lock Beside the door a placard said in French, DO NOT ENTER AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

“Why no lock?” Remi wondered aloud

“Probably removed so ard tourists can’t accidentally lock themselves in places they shouldn’t be”

He stuck his finger through the latch hole and gently pulled The door swung open an inch The hinges creaked He stopped, took a breath, then pulled the door the rest of the way open

Re the door shut behind the, then Remi cupped her hands around her LED and clicked it on They were standing on a narrow, four-by-four-foot landing To the right of the door was a ledge; at their backs, another cylindrical stairwell, this one leading only doard Together they peeked over the ledge

The LED’s beam didn’t penetrate any deeper than ten steps

CHAPTER 32

Following the blue-white beams of their LEDs, they picked their way down the steps to the next landing As above, they found a wooden door set into the wall, and beside it another Do Not Enter placard Expecting the shriek of ancient hinges, Sa noiselessly open They stepped through

Another tunnel, this one barely four feet wide and five feet tall, forcing Sa each as a rectangular cell door, but unlike their counterparts on the upper level, these were equipped hat Sainal vertically barred doors, each one standing open and tethered to an eyelet in the stone with a length of twine Salow of the LED and found the lock and latch were still present

“Just when you thought it couldn’t get any ,” Remi whispered

Scanning the walls as they went, they started down the tunnel After sixty or seventy feet they found a ten-foot-deep side tunnel set into the left-hand wall At the end was a waist-high rectangular opening They knelt down and Sa A few feet inside, a hatch was set into the floor; Saht into it “Another ladder,” he whispered “It goes down about six feet I think we’ve found the place”