Vertigomade her vision go sideways a moment, and she thought she might faint.Shutting the door quickly, she leaned against it and tried to catch herbreath. She’d started gasping for air. This was stupid—it was just adoor. She’d imagined it. Her mind was playing tricks, and Grant wasright, she should have stayed back in the casino.
No,she was a sensible woman, and she trusted her eyes. She opened the dooragain, and this time when she saw the second,identical—impossible—hallway through it, she stayed calm, and kept herbreathing steady.
Steppinggently, she went through the door, careful to hold it open, giving heran escape route. Her feet touched carpet instead of concrete. Shelooked back and forth—same hallway. Or maybe not—the room service cartwasn’t here.
“Odysseus?”she called, feeling silly using the name. His stage name, probably, buthe hadn’t given her another one to call him. His real name was probablysomething plain, like Joe or Frank. On second thought, consideringthe watch, the universal lockpick, his talk of spells, his weirdknowledge—Odysseus might very well be his real name.
“OdysseusGrant?” she repeated. No answer. Behind one of the doors, mutedlaughter echoed from a television.
Sheretreated to the original hallway and let the door close. Here, thesame TV buzzing with the same noise, obnoxious canned laughter on somesitcom. She could believe she hadn’t ever left, that she hadn’t openedthe door and seen another hallway rather than the stairs that shouldhave been there. This was some kind of optical illusion. A trick donewith mirrors.
Theroom service cart was gone.
Sheran down the hall to where it had been, felt around the spot where shewas sure she had seen it—nothing. She continued on to the opposite endof the hallway, past the elevators, which she didn’t dare try, to theother set of emergency stairs. Holding her breath, she opened thedoor—and found herself staring into another hallway, identical to theone she was standing in. When she ran to the opposite end of that corridor, and tried the other door there, shefound the same thing—another hallway, with the same numbers outside therooms, the same inane voices from the television.
Bait.The room service cart had been bait, used to distract her, to draw herback after Grant had already left. And now she was trapped.
Casinos,especially the big ones on the Strip, are built to be mazes. From themiddle of the casino, you can’t readily find the exit. Sure, the placeis as big as a few football fields lined up, the walkways are all wideand sweeping to facilitate ease of movement. The fire codes mean thecasino can’t actually lock you in. But when you’re surrounded byringing slot machines and video poker and a million blinking lights,when the lack of windows means that if you didn’t have your watch orphone you’d have no way to tell the time, when the dealer at theblackjack table will keep dealing cards and taking your chips as thehours slip by—you leave by an act of will, not because the way out isreadily apparent.
Morethan that, though, the resort is its own world. Worlds within worlds.You enter and never have to leave. Hotel,restaurants, shopping,gaming, shows, spas, all right here. You can even get married if youwant, in a nice little chapel, tastefully decorated in soft colors withpews of warm mahogany, nothing like those tawdry places outside. Youcan get a package deal: wedding, room for the weekend, and a limo tothe airport. The resort makes it easy for you to come and spend yourmoney. It’s a maze, and as long as your credit card stays good theydon’t much care whether you ever get out.
That,too, was a certain kind of magic.
Grantclimbed two flights of stairs, the single hand on his pocket watchgiving no indication that anything untoward lay beyond the door at eachlanding, before he noticed that the earnest blackjack dealer was nolonger with him.
Hepaused and called down, “Julie?” His voice echoed, and he received noresponse. He thought he’d been cautious enough. He looked around; thestaircase had suddenly become sinister.
Oneof the notable characteristics of a very tall staircase like this onewas that it all looked the same, minimalist and unwelcoming. Thislanding was exactly like the last, this flight of stairs like the firstsix he’d climbed up.
Thenumber painted on the door at this landing was five. He turned around,descended a flight, looked at the door—which also read five. And theone below it. Climbing back up, he returned to where he’d stopped. Fiveagain, or rather, still. Five and five and five. Somewhere between thisfloor and the last, his journey had become a loop. Which meant he wasin trouble, and so was Julie.
Therewere still doorways, which meant there was still a way out.
Five wasone of the mystic numbers—well, any number could be mystic to the rightperson under the right circumstances. Go to the casino and ask peoplewhat their lucky numbers were, and every number, up to a hundred andoften beyond, would be represented. But five—it was a prime number,some cultures counted five elements, a pentagram had five points. Itwas the number of limbs on the human body, if you counted the head. Anumber of power, of binding.
Whatkind of power did it take to bend a stairwell, Escher-like, uponitself? This magician, who’d orchestrated all manner of tricks andtraps, was drawing on an impressive source of it. And that was why theculprit hadn’t fled—he’d built up a base of power here in the hotel, inorder to initiate his scheme. He was counting on that power to protecthimself now.
Whenturning off a light without a switch, unplugging the lamp made so muchmore sense than breaking the light bulb. Grant needed to find thismagician.
Hepocketed his watch and drew out a few tools he had brought with him: awhite candle, a yard of red thread, and a book of matches.
Juliepaced in front of the doorway. She thought it was the first one, theoriginal one that she and Grant had come through, but she couldn’t beentirely sure. She’d gotten turned around.
Howlong before Grant noticed she was missing? What were the rules ofhiking in the wilderness? Stay still, call for help, until someonefinds you. She took out her phone again and
