“You can’t take both of us,” Stephen said. “Make a move for one, and the other will get you. You may be a strong ghost, but we’re still stronger.”

“The dead travel fast,” Newman said.

“Not that fast,” Callum said. “Believe me, I can outrun you.”

“He can,” Stephen confirmed.

“Well then,” Newman said, with a smile. “I suppose I’d better give myself up.”

“Just put the knife down,” Stephen said.

“You know . . .” Newman stepped back a bit, toward the twoleveled structure in the middle of the platform. “I did learn something very useful during my time down here—”

And with that, darkness—a darkness so absolute, my eyes had never experienced anything like it. My brain had no idea what to make of it. Now I truly understood where we were. We were deep underground. I had no sense of space, no sense of distance, no perspective at all. I couldn’t have found my way back to the steps. I didn’t have my cell phone on me—that had been taken away when they were tracing the texts.

“The location of the light switch,” he said. “Funny how frightening the dark is.”

His voice bounced around in all directions, off the curved ceiling, off the bricks and the tiles. He could have been thirty yards away, or he could have been next to me. Two tiny points of light appeared—the glow of the phones. After a moment, this was joined by a thin beam of light from Stephen’s direction, and then from Callum’s. The flashlights.

“Two lights,” Newman said. “Where’s the third one? Come out, come out . . .”

I saw Callum’s flashlight beam swing around wildly.

“Where’d he go?” Callum yelled. “You see him?”

“Just keep your terminus out,” Stephen called to him. “He can’t go near you. They’re more powerful now than they used to be.”

“Is that a warning for me?” Newman said. “I still see only two of you. There must be more.”

“There might have been a larger squad if you hadn’t murdered everyone you worked with,” Stephen replied.

“It never had to happen that way. I never intended to kill anyone. It was all very unfortunate.”

“Murdering five people you worked with was unfortunate? Taking on the role of Jack the Ripper was unfortunate?”

“A means to an end,” Newman said.

I was pretty sure Stephen was trying to make him talk to get a sense of where he was, but it was still impossible to tell. The acoustics sent the sound of his voice in far too many directions. Stephen reached over and grabbed me, putting his arms around me. He maneuvered us both over to the wall, then slipped from behind me and pushed the terminus into my hands.

“Hold this,” he whispered. “Keep pressing one and nine. Do not stop. Stay against the wall so he can’t get behind you.”