She realized she must have shattered the crystal lens when she used it to stop the Vortex meltdown. There was no choice now but to run. The smoke was stronger. More topiary vaults were catching fire. The recorder music was still floating through the air, but it came from the same direction as the smoke. If she followed the notes she would run straight into the fire.

Spode reached for her, his face twisted with madness and fury. She needed another distraction. Holding her breath, her heart pounding, she reached for another image on the camera.

The hologram of Spode stretching out his hands to push her mother off the cliff sprang to life. Spode stumbled to a halt, shock spiking in his aura.

Olivia heard her mother’s voice thundering in her head. The words spilled out, reverberating in the hot atmosphere.

“Dead man walking in a dying garden.”

Spode stared, transfixed, at the image.

“Fucking bitch,” he screamed.

Olivia no longer had the energy to maintain the holograms. She let them evaporate. She whirled around and fled into the maze, frantically seeking the recorder music with her exhausted senses.

Spode lunged after her.

“I’ll kill you like I did your mother,” he shrieked.

He was close—so close. It was true that his energy field was weakening, but he was still powerful, still strong. She knew she could never outrun him.

She made it around a corner and staggered to a halt when she saw Harlan running toward her. He had a gun in one hand. She started to tell him that Spode was right behind her, but there was no need.

Spode whipped around the corner and stopped when he saw Harlan. Then he laughed, a shrill shout of triumph.

“Fucking idiot,” he said, raising the recorder to his lips. “Guns don’t work in here.”

“I know,” Harlan said. “That’s why I brought a knife.”

The blade was in his hand before Olivia could begin to comprehend what was happening.

But Harlan did not throw the knife. There was no need. Spode was screaming in terror. He stared, stricken. It was as if Harlan had metamorphosed into a monster.

Which, Olivia realized, was technically true. Senses-searing energy straight from the heart of a nightmare iced the atmosphere. It was coming from Harlan’s unveiled aura. Panic. Horror. The feeling of drowning in a bottomless lake. Going down, down . . .

With a shriek, Spode hurled his navigation device over the top of the nearest wall of green.

“You’ll never find your way out,” he said. “The entrance is in flames by now. You’ll die in here, with me.”

He whirled and ran blindly into one of the intersecting corridors of the maze.

Seconds later he screamed again. This time the cry was abruptly cut off.

Harlan holstered the gun, took Olivia’s hand and went forward, knife at the ready.