Lily and Easton were in the well-shaft when Jack arrived at its top with Zoe, Smiley and the two other palemen.

Jack peered into the shaft and saw Lily and Easton halfway down it, using the hand-rungs to descend.

He glanced behind him: the original silverman was striding down the tunnel in pursuit, flanked by the two new ones.

‘Jack, go. Help Lily,’ Zoe urged. ‘I’ll give you a head start and follow right behind you.’

Then she levelled her gun back at the tunnel, took aim, and waited.

Jack didn’t have time to argue so he just started down the shaft with Smiley.

He hustled down its slick wall, gripping the ancient hand-rungs.

He peered downward . . .

. . . to see Lily and Easton step into the side exit, safe and away.

A second later, he heard gunshots from above.

Blam!-Blam!-Blam!-Blam!-Blam!-Blam!

Up in the chamber at the top of the well-shaft, Zoe opened fire on the first approaching silverman while her pair of palemen launched themselves at the other two.

Her gunshots boomed in the tight space as the automatons grappled with each other.

One of the palemen was battling the first silverman next to the edge of the shaft when Zoe leaned in and double-tapped the silverman through the same spot in the head at point-blank range, causing the silverman to suddenly freeze . . . and sway . . . and topple into the well-shaft.

Zoe had time to dive to the edge of the shaft and yell, ‘Jack! Look out!’

Down in the shaft, Jack snapped up at the shout.

And saw a silverman falling right at him!

Suddenly, a strong metal hand—Smiley’s—pulled Jack aside and the falling silverman whistled past, missing Jack by inches—before plummeting further down the shaft.

Jack hadn’t seen the web of filament wires.

Which was why his eyes widened in shock when he saw the silverman hit them.

One second, the silverman was falling, the next, it was falling in pieces, pieces that tumbled away into the abyss below.

Jack hurried downward, arriving at the side exit.

Now that he was closer, he could see the crisscrossing filament wires spanning the shaft.

They resembled fishing line: thin, taut and glistening.

Fresh blood dripped off them. He didn’t know it, but it was the blood of the Vandal that Lily had hurled down the shaft a minute earlier.

Filament wire, he thought.

It had taken two shots with his specially-tipped bullets just to slow one silverman.

But these filament wires—left here by the same intelligence that had designed and built this Labyrinth—had cut through a silverman as if he had been made of tissue paper.

‘Zoe! Get down here! We gotta get out of this place!’

Above him, Zoe slithered into the well-shaft while her two palemen grappled with the last two silvermen.

Suddenly, a muffled explosion boomed from somewhere and the walls around Jack shook.

It felt like an earthquake.