There’s only one way, Dewey. Down.

I spot an elevator, open-sided, like in a mine. No way I’m stepping into that coffin. Graded inclines—floored with corrugated tin, shored with timbers—descend beside the shaft. Safety signs plaster every wall. Every slope is roped or fitted with handrails.

I hear Ben-David’s boots, echoing from below on the corrugated flooring.

Instancer is calling to him. I recognize his voice but can’t make out what he’s saying. I hear Manning’s voice.

I tow Rachel after me.

Level Two.

Level Three.

Where are Dana and the soldiers? They must have their tunnel weapons by now. I’m trying to visualize how they’ll use them.

The dig itself is one giant mound. Tel is the archaeological term. It goes down a hundred and seventy feet. The tel is constituted of the layered remains of human habitations dating back five thousand years. Each historic settlement was founded on the ruins of the city, town, or village that went before, as each race of conquerors displaced the one that preceded it and was, in turn, supplanted by the wave to follow.

We have entered the pyramid at the top. Our route is straight down. But the mound can also be accessed at its base. Indeed, three excavation adits, wide and high enough to accommodate borers and other earthmoving equipment, enter the tel horizontally from three different sides, at the base of the pyramid. These tunnels converge at Level Seven around the central descending shaft.

Dana and her weapons crew have entered one tunnel.

Another team advances along a second tunnel.

A third penetrates the final lateral.

LEVEL FOUR

I stumble down the tin-floored incline, propelling Rachel before me.

Heat ascends from beneath my soles.

I smell sulfur.

Shouting echoes from below.

CAUTION signs in Hebrew, Arabic, and English plaster the walls. Alarm lamps flash in amber and red. I spot a locker area cut out against one wall. Flame boots sit in neat rows. Heat suits hang beneath visored helmets.

LEVEL FIVE

GEOTHERMAL ACTIVITY

FLAME SUITS MANDATORY BELOW THIS LEVEL

Rachel pulls away from me toward the lockers.

RACHEL

(snatches flame boots)

Grab something.

ME

Keep moving.

RACHEL

Are you stupid?

Level Six.

I force Rachel down before me. Heat has become unfathomable. My bare hands are so hot I feel my fingernails curling. Why didn’t I stop and grab a flame suit . . . or at least gloves? My neck and ears are blistering. I press down another corrugated incline.

Suddenly: the central shaft opens—a vaulted atrium where the three equipment tunnels come together.

Instancer stands at the nexus.

Manning stops at the incline entry. I stagger up beside him, dragging Rachel.

MANNING

Stay back!

He catches me and presses me into the wall. He’s smart; he has grabbed flame boots and gloves.

MANNING

Cover your face!

Manning makes me take his gloves and boots.

As I’m struggling to don them . . .

The first tunnel-buster fires.