Secret Circles

But an empty first floor didn?t guarantee an empty second. He peered up the dark stairwell. No noise or light from up there either.

He took off his sneakers and glided in his socks to the back door. He sagged with relief when he saw no sign of the Bentley.

Mr. Drexler and Eggers had gone.

But just to be sure … just to be absolutely sure, Jack eased up the steps and made a quick, nerve-wracking pass through the second floor. As he wandered the lightning-strobed hallway, a parade of horror film scenes— especially someone or something jumping out of a darkened doorway—flickered through his mind. But his search came up empty—just the way he?d hoped.

No longer afraid of making noise, he hurried down to the first floor and opened the basement door.

“Hey, Weez!” he called. “All clear!”

She didn?t answer.

“Weez?”

Still no answer.

Oh, jeez. Oh, no.

With his blood feeling as if it were congealing in his veins, he slipped back into his sneakers and crept down to the brightly lit basement.

“Weez?”

He ran to the table where they?d hidden and looked under it. He found her flashlight and the pyramid, but not a trace of her.

“Oh, God—Weez!”

“I?m right here,” said a voice behind him.

He whirled and saw her head sticking out from under the table opposite theirs.

“Don?t do that to me!”

She puzzled. “I didn?t do anything.” She crawled out, dusting off her hands. When she regained her feet she pointed to the space she?d just left. “Look what I found.”

Jack dropped to his knees and saw a thick semicircle of braided steel protruding from the concrete.

“What is it?”

“I noticed it when I was waiting for you. It looks like a handle.”

He looked up at her. “A handle? What—?”

“Help me move the table.”

He rose and together they moved it off the spot and down the aisle. Once the area was clear, Jack saw a rectangular groove in the floor. He brushed and blew the dust out of the seam on the far side from the handle and found sunken hinges. Pretty clear what they had here.

“A trapdoor.”

Weezy nodded. “Just what I thought. Especially when I tapped on it.”

Jack rapped his knuckles on the surface and heard a deep, hollow, gonging sound.

“Steel.”

“Yes,” Weezy said, her voice vibrating with excitement. “Made to look like concrete.”

Jack bent for a closer look. Based on the amount of dust and dirty sand in the grooves, the trapdoor or what ever it was hadn?t been opened for a long time.

He grabbed the ring and tugged. The door wouldn?t budge. He put his back into it with the same result.

“Give me a hand.”

Weezy added her strength to the pull but to no avail.

“I think it?s locked,” she said.

Jack inspected the dirty surface. “If so, it must be from the other side, because there?s no keyhole.”

“We?ve got to get it open, Jack. It?s obviously a secret compartment that?s been locked for who knows how long. Just think what could be hidden inside. Ancient books, infernal devices,

secrets!”

Jack stared at her shining eyes, her intent expression. “Okay … how?”

“I don?t know, but—hey, here?s something.”

She began brushing the dirt from a shallow depression in the trapdoor surface. Only it wasn?t so shallow. The dirt kept coming. And as she brushed it free, the edges of the depression became visible.

“Jack, it?s got six sides! And it tapers down to a point, I think!”

Her hands began to shake, so Jack lent his to the task and …

“You?re right … the same size and shape as … you think … ?”

Weezy was already under the other table, grabbing the pyramid.

“Yes! It?ll fit! It has to!”

Jack brushed-blew out the remaining debris from the hexagonal depression and took the pyramid from her. He placed it point-down into the cavity and leaned back.

“Near perfect fit.”

“Jack …” He could barely hear her. “I think it?s the key.”

The top three-quarters of the pyramid were settled into the opening, leaving the hexagonal base protruding. Jack leaned closer and noticed a circular groove running around the cavity, like it was set in the end of a cylinder.

“I think you?re right.”

He gripped the base and tried to rotate it, but it wouldn?t budge—clockwise or

counterclockwise, no luck, not even with Weezy?s help.

“It?s jammed.” He looked around. “Maybe we?d better go. We?re stretching our luck by staying here and —”

“Are you kidding?” she said, her voice jumping an octave. “They?re gone, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then we?re not going anywhere until we get that door open.”

He realized argument was futile.

“Okay, but—”

“Wait a minute,” she said, grabbing a flashlight. “I thought I saw something inside when I was cleaning it out.” She removed the pyramid and trained the beam on the cavity. The light wavered in her trembling hand as it revealed little rough spots on each of its six facets. “Don?t those look familiar?”

Jack leaned closer and immediately recognized them.

“The symbols on the pyramid. So it does belong in there.”

“Right, but maybe it?s got to be in there a certain way—with the glyphs matched up.”

So that was what they did: Matched up the glyphs on the six sides of the pyramid with those on the facets of the cavity.

But when Jack tried it again it still wouldn?t turn.

“It?s got to!” Weezy cried, her tone frantic. “It?s jammed!”

She rose and stomped on the base of the pyramid with a sneakered foot.

“Hey!” Jack said as she kept kicking it. “What are you doing?”

“This is what my dad does when something is jammed. He whacks it. So …”

Another kick or two and then she knelt beside him and they both tried rotating the pyramid.

It budged counterclockwise.

“Did you feel it?” Weezy cried.

Jack nodded and increased his efforts. He felt another budge. And then another. He and Weezy were grunting, their breath rasping though their teeth.

With a crunch, something broke free within the mechanism and the pyramid made a quick quarter turn. And then another quarter. And after that it made steady progress until it completed a full turn.

“I think that does it,” Jack said. “What now? Open it?”

Weezy nodded, eyes shining. “Are you kidding?”

Jack thought about the mound, and all the trouble digging into that had caused. And now this.