The closer they got to the city, the more eerie and alien it became. Even from a distance, the dark spot on the horizon was in imposing reminder that something other than human had once claimed this place as its home. But once the party set foot on the city's streets, that dark reminder became an immutable and frightening reality. Tall structures loomed on either side of a street that seemed far too wide for its own good.... wide enough for several armies to clash without even coming close to any of the adjacent buildings. The street was black, as was almost everything else in the city. Every surface and structure was composed of the same hard black substance... a substance that, on closer examination, proved to be neither stone, nor metal, nor organic. Its composition was a mystery; not even Princeton Park had the slightest clue what it was. An even greater mystery was how the buildings had been constructed. The odd structures reached many hundreds of feet above them. There were no seams or tool-markings on any of the walls. The city's surface was one continuous, unbroken slab, from which the buildings rose as if made from flowing water that was frozen in place. Small, irregular ridges and grooves in the street provided traction for walking, but the features had not been carved by mechanical means. There were no scratches, fractures or chips on anything... as far as anyone could tell, no workman's tool had ever touched any part of the city. Yet the buildings around them displayed corners and edges so sharp that they seemed like weapons in their own right.

The city's only light came from sections of the strange, blue glowing mineral that was present to some degree in almost every surface. The mineral generated no heat, and radiated no magical energy that Krycek could detect. What force powered its mysterious glow was as much of an enigma as the city it illuminated.

"I've been lots of places and seen lots of things," said Krycek. "But never in my life have I encountered anything like this. Ever."

"A city of wonders," Park remarked. "Imagine how it must have been millennia ago... when the Cthrain were in power. Armies of soldiers and slaves marching up and down these streets... their dark masters looking down on them from the spires above."

"You almost sound like you wanna live back then, Park." said Sutton.

"Don't be ridiculous," Park replied... an utterly unconvincing denial.

"How's the old man," Sutton asked.

"No change." Rath still carried Dokan's unmoving and seemingly dead body. He'd been carrying it for almost four hours, with no sign of fatigue and no change in Dokan's condition. "He's still alive. For now."

Red mumbled something, and Rath flashed him a suspicious look. There were no further mumblings from Red.

"This has all been an exercise in futility," said Park. "The man is dead...his brain just doesn't know it yet."

"We'll reach the dome inside an hour," said Rath. "He'll last 'til then."

"Yes, but the dome is as big as a city. Once we reach it, it could be days before we find something to help him. IF there IS anything to help him," said Princeton.

"You saying that your precious Cthrain can't do something as simple as bring a man back to life?

Park shrugged.

"All I'm interested in is the gold!" said Red. "How much treasure do ya think these guys left layin' around when they died, eh Park?"

"I never said they died." Princeton replied. "All the myths say is that they vanished."

"Dead. Vanished. As long as they ain't here NOW, I don't give a damn."

"The city certainly LOOKS deserted," said Krycek. "But looks can be misleading. Especially when dealing with ancient cities... I know that from personal experience."

"Me too," Rath added.

"Oh, most certainly," Princeton replied. "We should all be very careful not to touch anything... anything at all... until we know for certain that-"

"'ello! What's this!" Red stepped out of the party's loose formation and jogged over toward an object laying in the street. It was a curious pile of flat rocks. There were several dozen, with sizes varying from a few feet to a few fractions of an inch in diameter. Most of the rugged stone plates were an inch to two inches thick, with sharp, dangerous-looking ridges along their surface.

They appeared to be made of raw, unpolished gold with tiny specks of black mineral.

"I THOUGHT I smelt gold!" Red beamed.

"Gold?" said Sutton. "Layin in the middle of the street? If that ain't a trap, then my name ain't Sutton Woodbridge."

"Yer' prob'ly right. THURG! C'MERE!"

The huge, lumbering rogue joined Red beside the pile of flat rocks.

"Don't touch anything," Rath ordered. "We keep moving-"

"Well keep moving, then! I didn't come here for magic or to heal some stupid old man... I came for GOLD! And this here-" Red pointed to the plates. "Looks like gold. I've stolen enough of it to know what it looks like. Thurg, check it out."

Rath's eyes pulsed red. He gently sat Dokan down and started toward Red... but Princeton grabbed his arm.

"Not yet," said Princeton. "This might prove interesting. And remember... the thieves were expendable."

Rath growled, but didn't move... other than to yank his arm out of Princeton's grasp.

Thurg unsheathed his bastard sword and prodded the pile of rock. There was a gentle 'clank' of metal against metal, but no other reaction.

"Give it a good whack," Red ordered.

"We're wasting time!" said Lara. "We have to get help for Dokan!"

-CLANK!-

Thurg's huge weapon threw sparks as it bounced off of the pile of flat rocks.

"...damn..." Red said with a scowl. "That ain't gold. Gold is soft... this stuff doesn't even have a scratch on it."

"Oh," said Princeton, who sounded a bit disappointed. "Let's be on our way, then."

"Might be worth SOMETHIN' though... Thurg grab that big piece right there-"

Thurg sheathed his sword and bent down. He grabbed the largest plate by the edges and began to lift it-

-ssh-thwwip!-

A knot of tiny orange tentacles shot out of the underside of the plate and wrapped around Thurg's hand. Each tendril was only slightly larger than a human hair, but there were hundreds of them, and they slid into Thurg's flesh before the man could pull away.

"MMMMM!!!!"

-ssh-thwwip!-
-ssh-thwwip!-
CLANK!

More tendrils erupted from the other plates, ripping through Thurg's clothes and anchoring themselves in his flesh... then they pulled the plates along after them. The whole mass seemed to leap onto Thurg like a living thing...

-ssh-thwwip!-
CLANG
-ssh-thwwip!-
-ssh-thwwip!-
CLANK!
-ssh-thwwip!-

"AAAA!!!" Red shrieked as he backed away from Thurg. Thurg swung his hands wildly as the plates arranged themselves on his body, covering him completely from head to foot. Thurg's clothing fell away from him in shredded, bloody tatters as the tentacles tore through them. His weapons joined the clothing on the ground. The tendrils wiggled through his flesh until they reached his nervous system... where they bit down onto the nerve endings and released their painful toxin. Thurg howled in agony... a gruesome shriek that ended when the tendrils finally reached his brain. Then the pain stopped.

"Uh-ohhhh...." Sutton gasped.

There, where Thurg once stood, was an unrecognizable hulk of bleeding rock. The plates were like armor that covered almost every inch of him. Thurg was trapped inside of it; bonded to it by the tentacles still wormed busily through his flesh. Tiny gaps and joints continued to weep blood for a few moments.

The thing that was Thurg glared at the party... its eyes glowing slightly from deep within the arrangement of plates that served as a helmut. It's head moved slightly to stare briefly at each party member... studying them one at a time...
Then he stooped to retrieve his bastard sword-

"Hell," said Zackery. He and Drayn drew their swords.

Thurg took a step toward them... one step... then he paused. His head twisted curiously, as if he were listening to something. He made a sound... a hiss so low that it was almost inaudible... Then, with the party seemingly forgotten, Thurg turned and walked away from them. He walked toward one of the buildings and then veered down a dimly-lit alley. The dark outline of his massive, misshapen bulk was visible for a few seconds more... then he was gone.

"What... the... hell...?"

"Park, what was that?"

Princeton Park stared blankly into the alley... mouth half-open... looking very much like a dead fish.

"PARK!"

"Huh? OH! Uhhh... that was... that... was... I don't know what that was...."

"Whatever it was, good riddance," Zackery said. He sheathed his sword.

"Red's gone, too," said Rath.

The thief had vanished in the excitement of Thurg's transformation into... whatever.

"No great loss," said Rath. He picked up Dokan and started walking. Lara fell in beside him.

"Park was lying wasn't he?" Rath whispered to Lara. "About not knowing what that thing was."

"Yes," she replied.

"That's what I thought."

Everyone else followed close behind, but this time they kept watching the alleys, shadows, and side streets for signs of Thurg's return... or for any more mysterious objects in the street.

---

Red's only concern was to get as far away as possible, in as little time as possible. He didn't stay to see what became of Thurg... what he DID see told him that he really didn't want to see any more. Red was no coward, but with the party distracted by Thurg, he simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to give them the slip AND avoid possible deadly unpleasantness with one calculated dash for the shadows. He did stay close enough to hear if any fighting took place. He didn't hear any... so either Thurg was still with the group, or they managed to drive him away without combat. Either way, it wasn't his concern at the moment.

Red traveled at a right angle to the party's path. They had been moving in a straight line toward the huge dome at the center of the city. Red decided to circle around it for now and see what opportunities the others were passing by on their search for the old man's cure. The streets welcomed him with the same abysmal silence that had been with them since their arrival. There was no sound except for his own breathing and footsteps. The streets were so wide that they didn't even produce a proper echo. The silence was unnerving to the point that it would have given a lesser man second thoughts about exploring the city alone. To Red, it just meant that if there were something wandering these streets other than him, he'd hear it coming and would be ready to confront it when it had the misfortune of finding him. In the meantime, he had treasure to find.

Red noticed several things about the city that made his task more difficult. First was the lack of any discernable pattern to its streets and buildings. New roads branched off from each other at odd, and sometimes ridiculous angles. Streets curved and twisted and doubled back on themselves three, four, or even five times. Obviously, whoever or whatever had designed the city was either blind, insane, or both.

Then there were the doors.

Or, more precisely, the LACK of doors.

Almost every structure that Red passed was devoid of openings of any kind. The surfaces were either perfectly smooth, or 'decorated' with ridges or other minor features. Some streets led directly into solid walls, where they dead-ended with no sign of the doorway or opening that should have been there. Red circled a few buildings several times, looking for tell-tale signs of a secret entryway. He found none. It was almost an hour before he spotted an entrance... and that was little more than a shadowy blotch on a distant structure. He started toward it immediately, but he quickly became lost in the maze of impossible streets. Once he lost sight of his intended destination, it was gone forever in the maddening labyrinth.

"Damn," he grumbled. "I coulda stayed with the others for all the treasure I've found so far."

He stared at the huge dome, which was visible from almost every point in the city. That was where the party was headed. He had no intention of re-joining them, but if he could get close enough, he could shadow them for a while... see if they found anything worth stealing.

Red started toward the dome, determined to keep moving in that direction unless he spotted something more promising... which he did almost immediately.

He was passing a tall rectangular building whose shape became a pentagon, an octagon, and finally peaked in a pyramid several hundred feet above the ground. A huge opening yawned on its street-ward side. Red could see inside, where the lights in the high ceiling cast their eerie blue glow over the building's contents. There were two long tables that rose from the floor as if they were a part of it. Each was almost a hundred feet long and twelve feet wide. They sat parallel to each other, each table leading to a large square hole in the room's far wall... taken together, the two holes seemed almost like a set of black, empty eye-sockets peering menacingly out of the building.

Red ignored the openings... he was more interested in what sat on the tables leading to them. Each table was covered with piles and piles and even more piles of... things. Red couldn't tell what they were from a distance, but he did catch the distinct gleam of metal. He hesitated just long enough to look up and down the street before crossing the street and entering the mysterious structure.

The shadows were deep. Eerie blue light beamed down on the tables and the area immediately around them, but everything else was left to fade into the darkness. The black walls almost seemed to pull in the ambient light, intentionally making he chamber much darker than it should have been. Red paused in the doorway and scanned as much of the room as he could see. He remembered something he'd jokingly told Slick a few days ago when Slick had mentioned Rath's night-vision. Red had said that real men didn't need to see in the dark. Now, Slick was dead... and Red didn't trust the shadows as much as he used to. Red had a torch, but he wasn't comfortable in using it just yet. As soon as he lit a light, anything waiting for him in the room would know exactly where he was. So instead, he crouched and waited... then crept forward... listened... waited some more... then, satisfied that he was the only living thing in the immediate vicinity, crept cautiously toward the nearest of the long tables.

"Great," he sighed as he drew near. "The only building I can get into... and it's the damned garbage dump."

And that's what he'd found: Heaps of wood and cloth and metal spread out along the table's length in a big, unorganized mess. It looked like what might remain of an occupied house after it had been demolished... or what might remain of and entire town. Everything was ancient beyond description. Red brushed his hand across a wooden plank, and the entire thing disintegrated at his fingertips. Apparently the many, delicate layers of dust were the only thing holding it together. There was a thick woolen blanket nearby that fell apart so easily when he touched it that the blanket may as well have been MADE out of dust. Underneath the blanket was an old dagger that had completely surrendered to rust. Red tapped it with his fingernail, and the blade came loose from the hilt. It, and everything else, must have been here for many thousands of years... slowly yielding to the ravages of time.

"DAMMIT!" Red growled. He swept his hand across the table in an angry arc, destroying dozens of the ancient relics and kicking up a huge cloud of thick, choking dust that rose into the air like a living thing. "DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!" He pounded his fist on the table repeatedly. Each impact caused more and more of the debris to collapse and disintegrate. The table itself didn't budge... it was as solid as the day it was made.

"Of all the ROTTEN LUCK-"

-tink-tink-

Red froze and listened to the sound. Something small and metal had hit the ground. He spun around just in time to see a glint of gold roll off into the darkness.

"AHA!"

Red threw himself after the object... loosing himself in the shadows. He swept his hands across the floor until he found it, then he brought it back into the light to see what it was.

A ring.

A small, gold ring... tattered and tarnished, but unmistakably gold.

"Hmph," he said. "Hardly worth all the trouble I went through ta get here... but hell, gold is gold..."

He stuffed the ring into his pocket and returned to the table. His assault had yielded a small amount of treasure, so if he smashed a few more things...

Red swung axe through the piles of dust-laden junk, sending clumps of unrecognizable debris flying in all directions. A few metal objects hit the floor, and Red quickly stooped to examine them. Nails. Horseshoes. A necklace. A few knives. More rings. Some metal beer-tankards. Arrowheads. Bits and pieces of unidentifiable things. And even a few pieces of armor. A few loose jewels... diamonds and emeralds of various sizes. Everything was mixed in with in with heaps of useless garbage, with no semblance of order or logical intention. Fortunately, precious metals and jewels were relatively resistant to time, and Red amassed a disappointingly small pile of valuable trinkets.

"Gotta be a better way," he said. He turned toward the other table and wondered if he'd have better luck there. That's when he saw it. The outline was so faint that it was no wonder he hadn't seen it before now. But there it was... a large rectangular patch of darkness in the wall... a doorway leading to another part of the building.

It was a large, dark room with more sides than Red cared to count at the moment. The light was dim. The ceiling was very high, and the blue lights set into it only illuminated the very center of the room... where there was absolutely nothing to see. But the room was far from empty. Even in the dim light, red could see hundreds of odd cylindrical shapes lining the walls. Unlike the junk on the table, these seemed to have some kind of order. They were grouped together in clusters, with each cluster occupying its own space along the room's many walls. Some 'clusters' consisted of only one or two cylinders, but others contained many dozens... possibly hundreds.

"...'ello! This be the treasure room, I think!"

Red walked over to the first group of canisters. Each was about four feet tall; and their surfaces were all smooth and identical, with no distinguishing marks. There was some kind of strange mechanical plug in the top of each. Red grabbed one and lifted it... it had almost no weight at all. He toyed with the plug, but couldn't open it easily. He could probably figure it out or force it open, but he wasn't sure that was a smart thing to do at the moment. He was running his hands across the surface... looking for traps... when his fingers brushed across something strange: There was a dot on the canister's side. One single dot. It was small and easy to miss, but it was there. Each of the other canisters in the group had an identical marking.

Red moved over to the next group. These canisters were as light as the others, but when Red searched for the dot, he found something new: Four dots... two groups of two, arranged side-by-side with a few inches of space between each group.

"Hmmm... maybe this one's four times more valuable than the others... let's see what we got-"

Red examined the plug. Like the others, it had a small handle set in the top. He pulled and yanked and twisted... the handle came up at an angle, but nothing happened beyond that. Then, almost by accident, he discovered the sequence needed to open it. With the handle at a 45 degree angle, he pushed down on the plug while turning the handle counter-clockwise. The entire plug rotated, and something *clicked* within the mechanism.

Then there came a low hissing sound, and the plug began to slide out of the canister on its own.

"Uh-ohhhh..."

Red tried to force the thing closed, but apparently there was some trick to closing it. Before he could figure it out, the plug shot out of the canister like a cork, and a blast of air followed it.

"Gaaaagh!" Red snorted as he scrambled away. The colorless, odorless gas enveloped him for a moment before dissipating. "That's it..." he coughed. "I'm poisoned..." Red paused when he heard his own voice. "... wait a minute... HEY! Wait just a DAMNED MINUTE! WHAT HAPPENED TO ME VOICE!"

Red's voice wasn't his own... it was far, far too high, like that of a little child. Red didn't FEEL any different, but the gas had completely changed his voice!

"What kinda trap is THAT!" he squeaked. "That's not FUNNY!" Red began a string of curses that would have made a pirate blush. Then, just as quickly as the effect began, it faded. The last few oaths were in Red's normal voice.

"Well, THAT wasn't no treasure..." he said. Red walked across the room and picked another group of canisters at random. There were quite a few of one group in particular, and his thieves instinct told him that it might be worthy of investigating. The canisters were like all others, but instead of being marked with one dot, or four.... there were almost two-hundred! Had Red bothered to count or study them closely, he would have seen two columns: one of 79 dots, the other of 118. Another difference was the weight. The canisters were so heavy that Red couldn't budge them, not even a little bit. He opened one where it sat, this time taking care to lean far away from the plug and open it at arm's length. He needn't have worried. The plug didn't shoot out, and there was no rush of invisible voice-altering gas. He slowly unscrewed the stopper and looked down into the vessel.

"Oh... my.... I'VE HIT THE BLOOMIN' JACKPOT!!!!!!"

The canister was filled to the top with gold. Pure, raw, 100% elemental solid gold.

"OH YEAH! YEEE-HAAA!!!"

Red's shout echoed through the room, and the echoes reminded him that he was in a strange, unfamiliar city that may or may not be as deserted as it seemed. He crouched down low and hugged the canister of gold tightly as he listened. That's when he heard it. Footsteps. Heavy... steady... and getting closer.

"...ain't nobody takin' my gold..." he whispered. He eased back between several of the canisters and hid there, eyeing the chamber's entrance as he waited. The footsteps grew closer... they had an odd, metallic sound to them, like rock being struck repeatedly with metal. In a few moments, Red saw why.

Thurg emerged from the shadow and stepped into the room. Still covered head-to-foot in disjointed metallic plates, Thurg looked more like some kind of evil elemental than a man. His feet clanged loudly on the floor as he walked. He took a few steps and then stopped... pausing menacingly in front of the doorway.

And Thurg didn't come empty-handed. The rogue's huge bastard-sword hung limply from his right hand, and his left arm was curled around a mass of plates almost identical to the one that had infected him not long ago. The plates were incredibly heavy, but Thurg was holding them with all the ease of a woman toting a bundle of laundry.

Thurg's head rotated slowly as he scanned the room. His eyes flickered from within the depths of his rocky carapace... and they flashed when they passed Red's hiding place. Red felt Thurg's intense gaze settle on him.

"Oh," said Red as he emerged from his hiding place. His hand was resting not-so-lightly on his battle axe. "It's... it's just you. Good thing, too. I found the motherload here... only its too heavy for me to carry alone..."

Red waited for Thurg to respond. Thurg did nothing.

Red tried to decide on a course of action. He could run... but then there wasn't any reason to run YET. For all he knew, Thurg was still Thurg and didn't mean him any harm. Plus, once he made it out of the building, it might take him forever to find this place again. Even if Thurg was somehow affected by the plates that had attached themselves to him, there was no guarantee that the NEW Thurg meant him any harm... or that he couldn't be reasoned with, deceived, or otherwise neutralized.

And then he could always kill him.

And the more Thurg stared at him, the more Red leaned toward the last option.

"You gonna help me carry this stuff or what?" said Red. "I'll even be generous... split fifty-fifty... what do ya say, eh?"

Thurg started toward him, moving with more speed and balance than a man his size should have had... espesically one wearinga suit of rock-armor. Red backed away. He didn't like it. He didn't like the way Thurg moved. He didn't like the way Thurg looked. And he certainly didn't like the fact that Thurg was carrying another pile of whatever it was that had infected him in the first place. There had only been ONE before, and Thurg was wearing it. What was he doing with another? It was almost like Thurg had gone and retrieved it just so he could-

"Oh, NO ya don't!" said Red. "Yer not turnin' ME into one of them things!" Red drew his ax. Thurg dropped the load of metal and lunged toward him with one arm outstretched. "HA!"

Red sidestepped and swung his weapon-

CLANK!

-which drew sparks when the blade bounced off of Thurg's armored forearm. An instant later, Thurg's bastard sword was arcing toward Red. Red didn't know how Thurg managed to swing such a heavy weapon so quickly... but it wasn't quick enough. Red spun away from the sword and backed away. Thurg charged, and so did Red.

"YAAAAAA!!!!!!"

KA-CHUNK!!!

Red's axe sliced into Thrug's shoulder... just barely piercing the narrow gap between the two armor plates. The heavy weapon lodged into Thurg's flesh. There was a wet squishing sound and a brief spurt of blood, but that was it. Thurg didn't even react... no howl of pain... no scream of agony... not even a grunt or growl.

"What the-"

WHOOOSH!

Thurg's fist sailed toward Red's head in a powerful back-fist strike. Red barely ducked under it in time. He backpedalled rapidly. Thurg yanked the axe from his shoulder, tossed it away, and advanced as if nothing had happened. Going for a surprise attack, Red charged, drawing two daggers from his belt. This time Thurg was too fast.

To Red, it felt like he'd run into an iron wall. Thurg had shoved him away. Not even a punch or a proper attack... just a gentle shove that sent Red literally flying across the room. Red slammed into a wall and slid do the floor among the canisters of gold. His head was spinning, and his chest felt like he'd taken a hit from a cannonball. Red's shirt was shredded, as was the skin underneath it. The sharp ridges in Thurg's strange armor were like rows of razor-sharp teeth. Now Red was bleeding badly, and he knew he had at least two broken ribs. He could hardly move... but he did anyway.

Red had managed to hold on to one knife, and he saw his axe laying not far away. He crawled out from among the canisters and made a dash for it, hoping to speed past Thurg.

Thurg grabbed Red by the arm as he ran. Thurg twisted... gently...

CRACK!

Shattered bones exploded out of Red's arm.

"AAAIIIIEEEEEE!!!"

Instinctively, Red jabbed his knife into Thurg's wrist... again going for the tiny gap in the rugged armor. The knife went in... it struck flesh. Red jabbed it in deeper, twisting it and sawing it back and forth, hoping beyond hope that he would hit a nerve or something to make Thurg release him.

Thurg hissed.

Suddenly, arcs of energy erupted from Thurg's rugged armor... tiny, crackling tendrils of light snaked down Thurg's arm and into Red's, where it quickly spread throughout his entire body.

It was the most incredible, intense pain that Red had ever felt in his life. The pain of his shattered arm was lost in a sea of agony that was a thousand million times worse. Every nerve ending his body was on fire. Red's muscles went into convulsions so powerful that tendons and ligaments snapped from the strain. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't see. He couldn't even scream.

It lasted for less than a second, but it felt like an eternity. When searing redness cleared from his eyes, Red was on the floor, looking up at Thurg. A few stray arcs still crackled across the monster's armor as he reached for the discarded collection of empty plates.

"...no..." Red gurgled. His mouth was full of blood... sometime during his convulsions, Red had bitten off the tip of his tongue. He tried to get away, but his body was too weak from pain and injury. All he could do was shove himself along the floor with his left leg.

But he still had the knife in his hand.

"...not gonna let you do it... not gonna let you do it..."

He held the knife out in front of him as Thurg approached.

"...not gonna let you do it..."

Red put the blade to his own throat-

CRUNCH!

Thurg grabbed Red's hand and squeezed. The appendage became a thick, red pulp with bits of bone protruding from its center.

"AAAAAAA-"

Thurg dropped the collection of plates down beside Red, then picked Red up by the arm and deposited him gently on top of them.

The 'inanimate' plates sprang to life instantly. Orange and red tendrils wrapped around Red. They slithered into this skin... sank into his flesh... wiggled through his body like hundreds of flesh-eating maggots. Red felt the fire spreading through him... he felt the tiny tentacles pulling the plates onto his body and anchoring them in place. He felt the tendrils clustering in his shattered arm and hand... quickly repairing the damage before moving on to other tasks. They infested his organs, attaching themselves to every system in his body... his heart, his lungs, liver, stomach, intestines... they were everywhere. And Red could feel them. The pain was exquisite... so intense... so complete... so...beautiful.

Red stopped trying to scream, and the last thought he had before the parasite ate his mind was that maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all...

---

"It's huge," Lara gasped.

They group had reached the massive dome that dominated the city, and they looked upon it in awe. A huge black dome... its surface covered with ornate markings that defied description. They were standing in a wide courtyard that surrounded the dome like a giant ring of empty space. The 'ground' beneath them also bore inscriptions... strange circles and impossible shapes looked up at them.

"This is a holy place," said Princeton.

"I didn't think the Cthrain had gods," Krycek said. The mage was on one knee, getting a closer look at the inscriptions on the ground.

"They don't," Park replied. "The Cthrain ARE gods. This was the place where they ruled. We're standing at threshold of a divine, holy place."

"Whatever," said Rath. "How do we get in?"

Park looked confused for a moment. He scanned the dome.

"I... there should be an opening of some kind. There HAS to be."

"We'd better find it soon," said Rath. "The old man's starting to smell funny... kinda like Borris did before-"

"He'll be fine," said Lara. "We just have to get in."

"There's an entrance somewhere," said Princeton. "We'll just walk around the perimeter until we find it. Follow me."

"I don't like this," Sutton announced. "I didn't like it when we left Montfort. I didn't like the giant bugs. Or the worms. Or the fire-breathing lizard. Or the mushroom-people. Or the monsters. But THIS place I like least of all."

They wandered around the circumference of the dome for another twenty minutes before they found what they were looking for. The came to another street leading toward the dome, just as the street they followed had done. But his one didn't dead-end at a solid wall. There was a tall, arched opening, and the street lead straight into it. Bright blue light beamed out of the dome's interior.

"I wonder how many of us won't be making it back out of this thing," said Sutton as the party passed under the massive arch.

The inside of the dome was stunning. The road continued down the center of a wide, arched walkway with a row of massive, twisted columns on either side. The ceiling was made entirely of the glowing blue mineral, making this place the most brightly lit of anything they'd seen so far. Beyond the columns on either side were sets of wide steps that ran the length of the walkway. They led up to a narrow shelf of stone... or whatever it was... from which more arched doorways led into the unknown depths of the dome. At the end of the walkway was a gigantic monolith... a monstrous spire that rose the entire height of the chamber and disappeared through an equally massive hole in the ceiling.

"Incredible," said Krycek.

"Amazing," Princeton added.

"Look at all those doors," said Sutton. He pointed to the openings at the top of the stairs. "Where do they all go?"

"They lead to wonders unimaginable," said Princeton. "Every one of them. Hundreds of hallways... possibly thousands. A man could spend a lifetime in this place and discover only a fraction of its secrets."

"How are we going to find some help for Dokan?"

"Simple," said Lara. "We pick a hallway and start looking."

"That'd be like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Rath.

"Do you have a better idea?"

"I do," said Princeton. "I think we should split up."

"Like hell!" said Sutton. "I'm not gonna go wandering around this place by myself! That's crazy!"

"You needn't go alone... but we needn't stay all clumped together either."

"Bad idea," said Rath. "This city is neither empty nor safe... remember what happened to Thurg."

"And he's still wandering around out there somewhere, too," said Sutton. "Him AND Red."

"We stick together," said Rath.

"No," Princeton said defiantly. "This is where our agreement ends... Dokan and his 'friends' can go get themselves lost looking for a cure... while my party begins the research that is the very REASON we're here in the first place. This walkway divides the sanctum into two portions... you go that way, and we'll go this way."

"Two groups," said Krycek. "Sounds safe enough... for those who worry about such things."

"Do what you want," said Lara. "We can't waste any more time arguing about it."

"Good. Krycek... Drayn... Rath.... come with me. And Rath, DO drop that corpse before it begins to stink-"

"No," said Rath. "I'm going with the other group."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm going with the others. There's still a chance to save the old man... or to make sure he's dead before those things hatch out of him."

"You are in MY group! You are here to protect ME!"

"The old man and the girl have done a lot for this party... all you've done is complain and try to get us killed at every opportunity. If you need protection, then come with me."

"But I'm PAYING YOU!"

"Like you said... this is where our agreement ends. I'll take my share of whatever treasure we find and that will be that."

"I hired you because you're supposed to be LOYAL!"

"There's a point when loyalty becomes stupidity," said Rath. "And I think we've reached it right here."

"Rath?" said Lara.

"Let's go."

Princeton watched Rath and the others start up the stairs. He didn't call after them... he just watched. His own party, which now consisted of only Krycek and Drayn, stood behind him.

"Well," said Princeton as Lara's group decided on a passage. "That was disappointing."

"I can see his motives," said Krycek. "But now is not the time to consider them. We have secrets to uncover."

"Ohh, yes... yes indeed." A smile crept across Park's face. "They'll shortly find themselves lost... with no idea where they are or how to get back here. WE, on the other hand..." Princeton turned and faced the stairs opposite the ones that Lara's group had taken. He studied the passages at the top of the stairs, then began counting them... beginning from the one nearest the main entrance. "One... two... three..."

"What are you doing," said Drayn.

"I'll explain when we're out of earshot," Park whispered.

---

"All these hallways..." Sutton sighed. The dome was a maddening maze of twisting passageways, only a few of which had any doors or openings of any kind. Untold distances of featureless halls passed behind them. Dozens of intersections... none of them at 90-degrees... confused and confounded all but the most attentive among them. They paused to investigate the few rooms that they did find. Most of them were completely empty. Some had a few cylindrical containers arranged around the walls. One room had one of the living plate-armor creatures piled in a corner. They all backed out of that room slowly and carefully... then continued their fruitless search for help. Sutton, Zackery and Rester were hopelessly lost after only a few minutes. It was hard to judge Rath's expression, but he seemed to be frowning more than usual... which may have meant that he was lost as well.

Of all of them, only Lara seemed undisturbed by the insane labyrinth. Every once in a while she would pause to study everything around them... as if there were ANYTHING to study other than blank walls and glowing blue ceilings... then continue on at a vigorous pace.

"We have to keep moving," she chided Sutton when he asked her to slow down.

"We've been moving non-stop since before we fought those carrion-diggers," he had replied. "Either we find a place to rest soon, or we drop in our tracks."

"And what about Dokan?" she replied. "Are we just going to let him die while you get your rest?"

"Maybe you should face it," said Zackery. "The man's as good as dead. We'll never find anything to help him in time."

"How much time do we have, then?" said Lara. "You're certain that time will run out on him... so you MUST know exactly how much longer he has to live, right?"

"I'm just saying-"

"He doesn't have long," Rath announced. Rath had been carrying Dokan's unconscious body since before they reached the city. He knelt, lay Dokan on the floor, and checked for a pulse. "His heart's beating faster... and erratic. He's slipping out of whatever trance he put himself into. He can't hold it back for much longer."

Lara let the painful knot of fear and denial subside from her throat. She wished that Rath hadn't said that. She really wished that he'd just kept his mouth shut.

"He'll be fine," she said.

"You keep telling us that," said Rester. "But who are you trying to convince... us? Or yourself?"

"He's a remarkable man," Zackery added. "But I don't think he's THAT remarkable."

"He is!" Lara cried. "He is, and he's going to DIE if we don't help him! Don't you understand that!? He's going do DIE!"

"Oh yeah, I think we're all clear on that point," said Zackery. "Question is, are those things gonna come out of him and kill the rest of us with him? Or are we gonna-"

"NOBODY is going to TOUCH him!" Lara tried to sound forceful, but all she managed was more tears. "We're NOT going to let him die! You don't know who he is... what he's done... all of that can't end. Not like this..."

The men looked at each other. Rester shrugged.

"The man is old," said Sutton. "Most men don't live to be HALF his age... not without magic. I don't know him like you do, but I'm sure he accepted the fact that his time is almost up... that he's gonna die eventually... sooner rather than later. He wouldn't want you to be carrying on like this-"

"He WOULD! Or he wouldn't have put himself in the trance!"

"He didn't know it would be this hard," said Zackery. "He didn't know the place would be this big. You heard Princeton, we could search for a lifetime-"

"And we WILL!" said Lara. "We'll search for a lifetime. DOKAN'S lifetime. And we're WASTING that time standing here talking about it! If you don't want to help, then FINE! I'll do it for myself... I can make better time on my own anyway!"

"Heeey, now... nobody said anything about you going off alone," said Sutton. "What if you get lost? Hell... what if WE get lost?"

"I know exactly where we are and how to get back. And if something happens to me... RATH can track our path by scent and lead you back where we started. Right?"

Rath nodded.

"Wait, you're gonna send her off alone?"

"I don't need protection! And I'm faster without the rest of you!"

"Let her go," said Rath. He turned to Lara. "You run into trouble... yell. I'll hear you."

"There won't be any trouble," she replied. "YOU just make sure none of them touches Dokan."

"Don't worry," said Sutton. "I ain't gettin' CLOSE to him!"

"He'll be safe... as long as he stays human."

"I mean it!" said Lara. "Don't touch him! Don't you DARE touch him! If I come back here, and he's... I'm trusting you, Rath. Please."

"Find him some help," said Rath. "Find it fast."

"When I find it, I'll call..."

"We'll come as fast as we can."

"You'd better."

Lara looked each of the men in the eye... then she was gone, running down the hall and darting around a corner.

"If something happens to that child" said Sutton. "We're all going straight to hell. Just wanted everybody to know that."

"I thought we passed through hell on the way HERE," Zackery replied.

"So... do we kill him now?" Rester drew his hunting knife from his belt and ran his finger along the blade. "We don't want him to get too close-"

"Not yet," said Rath.

"I thought that was why we let the girl go?"

"It is," Rath replied. "If the time comes, we need to do it fast... and she doesn't need to be here to see it. But the time hasn't come yet. I'll let you know."

"She's trusting us," said Sutton.

"Like I said, Sutton.... there's a fine line between loyalty... and stupidity."

---

"You've all underestimated me," said Princeton as he lead Krycek and Drayn down the maze of hallways. "Every last one of you. Not that I blame you... we Parks have a history of being underestimated. Among other things."

"I notice you seem to have some insight into the intricacies of this place," said Krycek. "Some insight that you haven't shared with us."

"Oh, yes. Absolutely. There are things... myths, stories, second-hand accounts... that I have not recorded any of my books. I have them all locked up here-" Princeton tapped his forehead with his finger. "Thousand-year old scrolls, unearthed by my own two hands. Priceless! I memorized them... and I burned them. My memory is the ONLY place they exist now."

"In case someone found the city before you did," said Krycek. "They'd get lost. Maybe never make it back. Without YOUR knowledge, the entire expedition would be a failure... or a deathrap."

"NOW we're beginning to understand each other, Mr. Krycek.

"And one of those stories tells you how to get around in this place?" said Drayn.

"In a way, yes. There was a civilization known as Khimit in the southern mountains several thousand years ago. Relatively unremarkable in most aspects. They faded away into obscurity long before most modern civilizations were born. BUT they were great storytellers in their time. Some of those stories eventually found their way onto scrolls which were locked away with gold and jewels... treasures for the future. One of those scrolls is a myth... a myth about a place where a man rose from the earth one day. He had just escaped from hell, you see. He was sick, injured... not far from death. But the healers treated him as best they could. While they did, he entertained them with his story... how he was kidnapped by demons and taken far beneath the surface to their underground city. How he became a slave, and how his strength and wisdom impressed his masters so much that they invited them into their sanctum to serve them. He told of the wonders and horrors he saw and of the demon's great library, where the demons kept all their greatest secrets. He told of the maze of passages that were designed to confound any who attempted to find it. He also gave them exact directions on how to reach it. That's where we're going now."

"So how did he escape?" said Drayn. "Certainly not the same way we got here."

"He said that the demons let him go."

"They just... let him go?"

"That doesn't sound like the Cthrain at all," said Krycek.

"Well... the story says that the man died exactly three hours after he appeared. His body burst open, and three creatures emerged. The things terrorized the town, reproducing to massive numbers within the population. Only a few people escaped... one of them carrying the story of what happened. The town lay deserted for hundreds of years... deserted except for the dozens... maybe hundreds of creatures that lived just under the surface, waiting for another victim to appear. Eventually the city's ruins were destroyed by an earthquake. Its location was never found... and the whole story is believed to be just a myth. But we know better than that now, don't we?"

"They infested the guy and sent him to the surface," said Drayn. "Used him like a weapon to destroy the entire town."

"Now THAT sounds like the Cthrain," Krycek said with a chuckle.

"It certainly does, doesn't it!" Park laughed.

"Tell me about this library," said Krycek. "What sort of things will we find?"

"Everything," said Park. "The Cthrain recorded everything... all their discoveries... their history... secrets to their power... EVERYTHING about them!"

"And it will all be ours," said Krycek. "All of it."

"The secrets to everything in this building... everything in this city..."

"So far, that hasn't amounted to much," said Drayn. "We've been walking forever and haven't passed so much as one room-"

"Oh, there are rooms all around us," Princeton replied. "We just can't see them."

Drayn gave Princeton a confused glance. Krycek appeared to know what Princeton was talking about, but neither of them seemed interested in explaining it to Drayn.

---

"Rath, look."

Rester pointed to where Dokan's body lay. A thin trickle of blood oozed out of the corner of his mouth. Dokan coughed once... then lay still.

Rath frowned.

"He's getting close," he said.

"Well how close do you want him to GET!" said Rester... his shout woke Sutton up.

"Wha-"

"Look-" Rester pointed.

"Oh, hell..."

Rath used his knife to tear Dokan's shirt way. Dokan's chest was riddled with purple veins, just as Borris' had been. The veins weren't throbbing yet... yet. Rath sniffed the air around Dokan.

"You don't need to SMELL him!" said Rester. "Do it! Do it NOW, before its too late!"

Rath put his hand on Dokan's chest.

"There's nothing moving in there... just a heartbeat. One heartbeat."

"I don't care! I liked the old man... I REALLY did," said Rester. "But not only do I not want to see him die like Borris, but I ALSO don't want to deal with any more of those THINGS-"

"ALL RIGHT!" Rath roared. "I TOLD you we'd do it when the time came... the time hasn't come yet."

"The HELL it hasn't!"

"You wait much longer and the girl's gonna come back," said Zackery. "You wanna kill him in front of her, is that it?"

"You know I don't."

"Then do it now."

"I'll do it when I'm ready."

"Well, while you're getting ready," said Rester as he moved toward Dokan. "let ME-"

"SIT DOWN AND DON'T MOVE!" Rath growled. His eyes flashed red.

"Okay," said Rester. "Have it your way."

"How much longer you gonna wait?" said Zackery.

"Few more minutes," said Rath. "Five. Maybe ten. Maybe less. Probably less."

"Fine," said Zackery. "We'll wait."

Rath looked down at Dokan's face.

"Fight it, old man," he said. "Just a little while longer..."

---

She wished she was faster. Ten times faster... a hundred times... a thousand. Then she could zoom up and down these hallways faster than most men could think. Then she could search this entire dome in seconds. She could save Dokan.

But she wasn't faster... and the more she ran... the more she searched... the more she realized that Dokan was going to die. The man she admired. The man who had done more in his lifetime than any ten men would ever do in theirs. The greatest thief who ever lived. Her teacher. Her mentor.

Her friend.

He was going to die a horrible, agonizing death. Then she would be all alone.

She had been alone before. In fact, that was how she preferred to be. But not like this. Not without Dokan. He was the reason she was who she was. He was the center of her very existence. What was she without him.

Then Lara felt guilty. This wasn't about her. It was about Dokan. It was about the man who'd taken her in and treated her as his own child. How dare she worry about what SHE would do?

Lara ran faster. Searched harder. With tears in her eyes, she looked and ran and looked some more. She found empty rooms. She found more corridors. She found nothing.

Nothing at all.

How long had she been gone?

Twenty-eight minutes.... she knew that instinctively, because that's how she'd trained herself. But she DIDN'T know if that was too long. Was it too late? Was her friend dead?

He was. Lara knew it. Dokan was gone... burst open like a mellon. The image hit her so suddenly that she didn't even question it. She just accepted it. Her frantic run slowed to a jog... then a walk. Lara leaned against the wall and tried not to cry... but she couldn't stop it. She slid down to the floor and sat there. She tried to tell herself that it wasn't true... but she'd been gone so long. And Rath was right, Dokan was loosing the battle even before she left. He'd held on longer than any man could ever do... he'd held the things inside him back with the sheer force of his mind. But there was a limit even to that... wasn't there?

To the mind, perhaps... but there was no limit to the human spirit.

Lara opened her eyes and looked around. She could have sworn someone had spoken those last words to her... but they hadn't been words at all. Just thoughts. Thoughts... from where? From her? Was her mind paying tricks on her?

Confused, Lara stood. She peered up and down the hall. There was another intersection not far way.

And there was a shadow on the floor... a shadow of someone hiding in the adjacent corridor.

Lara was there in an instant... but she found nothing. The shadow was gone, but it HAD been there.... she was sure of it. But where did it go? If someone had been here, there was nowhere for them to go. The next intersection was too far away for them to reach in such a short time-

Lara gasped. As she glanced at the next intersection, she saw it again. A shadow disappearing around the corner.

Lara ran after it. Pushing her doubt and sadness aside, she ran as fast as she could, reaching the next corridor only a few seconds later.

It was empty.

Lara stopped and stared at nothing... not believing that she'd been chasing shadows. But she was....

...and there was another one.

Once more, she ran. Another intersection... a shadow just disappearing to the right. This time, she wasn't disappointed when she arrived to find nothing there. She just looked...

"THERE!"

The shadow... the thing... whatever it was... led her on a mad chase through the corridors. She took the twists and turns without slowing down and without losing balance. It was always there... just moving out of sight.

"DOKAAN!" she shouted after it. "IS THAT YOU! ARE YOU GUIDING ME!?"

There was no reply... only movement around a corner not far away. Lara was there in an instant. She turned, expecting to see nothing.

But the corridor wasn't empty.

Lara opened her mouth to gasp or scream.... but the sound froze in her throat. She looked up at the thing as it floated there, hanging weightlessly in mid-air halfway down the hallway. It looked at her... two glowing eyes transfixed her soul and froze her to the spot. She couldn't look away. No matter how much she tried... she couldn't move. She couldn't scream or even cry. All she could do was stand there and tremble in the incredible light that poured off of it. It was like looking up at the sun and finding that it was looking back down at you.

Lara tried to speak... to move. She couldn't. The thing kept looking at her. It wouldn't look away. It just floated... so large and yet so graceful. One arm lifted out to the side and pointed to the open doorway beside it.

"Do not fear," said Malyk. "And do not grieve. Even in death, there is no limit to the human spirit. Rememberrr..."

The Rune Missionary faded away, leaving Lara alone in the corridor. Without the light from his apparition, the hallway seemed so cold and dark that it was almost unbearable... even though it was exactly the same as all the other hallways had been before it.

Lara went to the door that the spirit had pointed to. She looked inside, and saw what waited there.

She turned back the way she came, cupped her hands around her mouth, and yelled as loud as she could:

"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

---

"This is it? Somehow I expected something bigger."

"Patience, Drayn," said Krycek. "I suspect that this place is more than it appears."

Drayn shrugged.

Their journey through the maze of empty passageways had ended in a single, wide corridor that led to a large octagonal room. The room was almost empty. There was almost a complete absence of anything identifying it as the library that Park and Krycek had come to find. In fact, the room had only two distinguishing features.

First was the small structure rising from the center of the floor. It looked like a decoration of some type... a short cylindrical column topped with a wide disk set at chest-height. The strange item resembled a simple fountain who's water had dried up millennia ago... not something that one would find in a library.

And then there was the window. One entire wall of the room was almost completely transparent, giving occupants a view of an adjacent chamber.

The other chamber dwarfed the 'library' by a factor of a hundred at least. It was a huge room, a monstrous cylinder with thousands of alcoves set into its walls in an surprisingly orderly series of columns and rows. There were thousands of them. And in each alcove sat an object...

They looked like eggs, only they were elongated so that they were much taller than their width. Most of them were black... their surfaces scorched and cracked by some fire or explosion within the room. But there were a few... a cluster of perhaps fifty... that had escaped whatever cataclysm had claimed the others. These were glowing brightly with an steady blue light... not unlike the mineral that illuminated everything in the city.

"No..." Princeton gasped. He ran over to the window and pressed his hands against the transparent surface. "It's been destroyed! NO!"

"Calm down, Princeton-"

"LOOK! The Cthrain stored their knowledge in those pods! THOUSANDS of volumes! But... but just LOOK! They're DARK! SMASHED! Something has DESTROYED them!"

"Not all of them," Krycek said calmly.

"A PITTANCE! I didn't come here to pick over REMNANTS! And neither did YOU!"

"That is true... but lets see what it is that we DO have before we lament over what we do not. Yes?"

Princeton stared into the storage chamber for a few seconds more, then turned to the elevated disk in the center of the library. There were symbols all over it... clusters of lines and curves, shapes so complex that were almost painful to look at for more than a few seconds.

"Park?" said Krycek. "Is this-"

"Language," said Princeton. "The written Cthrain language."

"Can you translate it?"

"No... No one has ever seen this. I've never found anything that describes what their written language looks like... just what it sounds like."

"Hmmm..." Krycek scratched his chin. "This may take some time to decipher."

"I'll say," said Drayn. "There's gotta be hundreds of different shapes on this thing."

"Thousands, actually," said Krycek. "...wait..."

Krycek and Princeton both turned to look again at the storage room.

"Thousands of volumes. Thousands of symbols."

"One for each volume," said Princeton. "That greatly simplifies things. And look here-" Park pointed to a row of larger symbols around the edge of the disk. "These are larger than the others... they must be how the mechanism is operated-"

"Controls! Yes!"

Before anyone could stop him, Park reached out and touched one of the larger symbols. The disk made a series of deep, humming sounds that almost resembled spoken words. The symbol Princeton touched lit up, and it continued to glow bright blue even after he removed his hand from it. Another of the symbols began flashing with an angry red light.

"Park, what have you done!" said Drayn.

"Amazing," said Princeton. He began he dug through his pack and pulled out book of notes...

"Those sounds that it made-" Krycek began.

"PRECISELY! THAT was Cthrain! I can translate that!"

Krycek peered over Princeton's shoulder.

"They must be like hieroglyphs," said the mage. "Instead of representing a basic sound, like an alphabet, each symbol must stands for an entire word, or concept."

"HERE!" Princeton pointed to a page in the book. "The disk said... errr... uhhh... 'SYSTEM ERROR'"

"Now that's cryptic," said Krycek. "Can't they come up with a more useful error message than that?"

"Perhaps they did," Princeton replied. "There's another symbol that lit up... the one flashing red. Maybe it means for us to touch that one."

Princeton reached for it, but Drayn caught his hand.

"Maybe you should find out what it does first," said the mercenary.

"Oh, be quiet! We CAN'T translate the symbols until after we activate them... that's the only way to hear the sounds they make. Now, LET ME GO!"

Princeton snatched his arm out of Drayn's grasp and jabbed his finger on the glowing red symbol.

"ZEAUWOP RIJOG - LAKOA QEYO," The disk announced in deep, resonating tones. Princeton immediately started flipping through his book, trying to discern their meaning, but he was interrupted by another sound from within the room.

There was a high, mechanical whine, followed by a series of sliding noises. The floor in front of the window began to undulate and ripple as if it were water... a shape began to rise up, taking substance from the floor itself as it rose from below.

Drayn drew his sword and stood ready. Krycek took a step back and prepared a spell.

The thing finally settled into place. It was a chair. It sat facing away from the window, with its base melding into the floor as if both floor and chair had been carved together from the same material. There were no seams or gaps whatsoever. The chair's surface was completely black, with no markings or symbols of any kind.

"Heh," said Drayn. "A chair."

"What words did the symbol make, Park?"

"Eh?" Princeton tore his eyes away from the chair. "Oh. Uhhh... 'Load recipient and select volume'."

"Are you sure that's what it said?" Krycek said doubtfully.

"Almost positive," Princeton replied. He turned back to the disk. "Look there!"

All of the smaller symbols were now lit. Most flashed red, but a small cluster of them burned with a steady blue color.

"The red ones are damaged. The blue ones are the ones we can access."

Princeton looked from the chair to the disk and back again... then he dashed across the room and threw himself into the chair.

"Park, what are you-"

"Push one of the symbols!" Princeton demanded.

Krycek eyed Princeton warily.

"I'm not certain about this," said the mage.

"WHAT!? I thought this is what you wanted! KNOWLEDGE! POWER! It's all right HERE... what's left of it, anyway!"

"We don't know that. We don't know WHAT this machine does."

"PUSH THE DAMNED BUTTON AND LETS FIND OUT!!!"

Again, Krycek hesitated. He glanced at Drayn-

"Don't look at ME, I ain't getting in that thing."

"I'm waiting," said Princeton.

"Very well."

Krycek pressed one of the glowing blue symbols.

KA-KLOOOONG! vvvvrrrrRRRRRMMMM...

Things started happening everywhere at once.

In the storage room, a monstrous mechanical arm descended from the ceiling. The arm ended in a complex claw-shaped construct from which a nest of tubes and wires led back up to the ceiling. When it was halfway to the floor, the downward motion stopped. The lower half of the arm rotated 90-degrees, and the entire assembly moved forward... toward one of the glowing pods. In the library itself, a similar, though smaller arm began to lower itself toward Park. It emerged from the ceiling as if the ceiling itself were giving birth to it from its own substance... it came straight down toward the chair.... toward Princeton Park's head.

"Oh, my..." Princeton gasped. He looked nervously up at the descending claw. "Ohhh, my..."

"Get out of the chair, Park!" Drayn shouted.

"Noooo..." said Princeton. The claw was getting closer and closer to his head. "I... I don't think it means to harm me-"

"Even if it doesn't," said Krycek. "Look at that thing... its obviously made for something with a physiology much different than yours... it could kill you by accident!"

"With every great discovery, there is a certain amount of risk..."

KLOOOONG-CLICKT!

The claw in the storage room clamped onto one the pod with such force that they felt the vibrations in the library. The pod didn't seem harmed, however.

"You're not going to let him do this!" said Drayn. He ran toward Princeton. "I'm getting him out-OOOF!"

Krycek tripped the mercenary with a sweep of his foot.

"You'll do no such thing. He's the one in the chair... he knows the risk. We MUST know what's in those volumes!"

VVVVRRRRRMMMMMM-

The claw opened... three dangerously sharp appendages surrounded Park's head. The arm lowered another foot, and the claws stood poised to impale Princeton's brain.

"It's too late! PARK!"

"-eeep!"

-click-

They closed gently around Princeton's cranium... pressing firmly against his skull, but not breaking the skin.

"heh," Park chuckled. "This tickles."

"What's happening, Princeton?"

"Umm... nothing that I can tell. What's going on with the disk? Did it say anything?"

"No. All the symbols are dark except one... its flashing blue."

"Press it."

"Certainly."

Krycek reached for the symbol... then paused. He looked back at the chair.

"What NOW?" said Princeton... who looked very strange with an alien device clamped onto his skull.

"I just..." said Krycek. "...for a second I thought I heard... never mind."

He pushed the symbol.

"ANEM." the disk announced.

Everything began to hum. The disk. The chair. The mechanical arms. Even the walls and floor began vibrating slightly. In the storage room, the tubes on the giant arm were glowing bright blue... the same color as the pod that it grasp.

"Oh!" Princeton gasped. He sat rigid in the chair... hands clasping the edges on either side... eyes wide open. "OHHH!!"

"GET OUT OF THE CHAIR!"

"No," said Princeton. "This is... this is FASCINATING!"

"What are you feeling? What's happening, Princeton?"

"Everything!" Princeton's voice was getting a weaker... it took on a distant quality. "...so much information...I had no idea..."

"Princeton, DESCRIBE it!"

"I..." Princeton was gone. He was still awake. His eyes were wide open, but they seemed to be staring at something outside the room. Something far, far away.

Krycek checked for a pulse, and found it easily. Princeton's heart was racing. He was alive and seemingly unharmed... but his mind was somewhere else.

"I guess there's nothing to do but wait," said the mage. Krycek then studied the mechanism clamped to the Princeton's head... and the chair in which he sat. "You know," he said as he stepped away from the chair. "I just noticed something..."

"That you and Princeton are both crazy?" said Drayn.

"No..." Krycek went back to the disk. Several symbols were lit, but Krycek didn't touch any of them. "It's just that... if one is supposed to sit in that chair to access the library... then why are the controls located all the way over here... where you can't reach them from the chair?"

"What does that mean?"

"It means... we may have just made a horrible, horrible mistake..."

[To Be Continued]