Every room I’d run through had led me further into the building and all the stairs had led down. I was somewhere deep under the cathedral, now. The walls were bare stone and the rooms were filled with huge stone tombs covered in inscriptions. I stumbled on, my legs starting to go rubbery. There had to be an exit somewhere!

Then, at last, I saw a flight of steep stone steps leading up. It looked like it went all the way up to ground level. There was a door at the top and—yes!—I could see a sliver of sunlight beneath it.

I started up the stairs, panting and wheezing. They were incredibly steep, and there was no handrail. I had to go up them almost on all fours, using my hands. Behind me, I could hear Becker reach the bottom of the stairs. Move!

I reached the top and, with my chest feeling like it was going to explode, I fell against the door and turned the handle—

Nothing happened. The door was locked.

No! No, how can it be locked?! I threw myself against the door but it held firm. I rattled the handle, almost hysterical, but it wouldn’t open.

Becker started to climb the stairs, his steps unhurried. “They had to lock it years ago,” he told me. “Junkies kept getting in and stealing things.”

I spun to face him, my chest heaving. He was smiling the smile of a man who knows he’s won.

The stairs were steep. Maybe if I sprang at him, I could knock him over and run past him. As he reached me, I tensed my legs and—

He drove his fist into my stomach and I doubled over. He knocked the air out of me so completely that I couldn’t even cry out in pain. He grabbed the key from my hand and pocketed it, then wrenched my arms up behind me, folding me over completely. A zip tie cinched tight around my wrists. “You’re going to tell me everything your friends know,” he told me. “And everyone they’ve told, so I can kill them, too.”

He set off down the stairs with me in front of him. He held my bound wrists cruelly high behind my back, so I had to stagger along, bent over, still barely able to breathe.

67. Danny

67

DANNY

Where is she?

I’d run through what felt like the entire bloody cathedral but there was no sign of Erin or Becker. I slowed as I saw Gabriel ahead of me. “Anything?”

He shook his head. Cal emerged from a different doorway, then Gina, Bradan and JD. No one had seen her.

Sirens had been growing gradually louder as we searched. As we looked at each other, they reached a peak and stopped. The police were here. I peeked out of a window and saw at least twenty armed officers swarming towards the cathedral.