Pandemonium

MARCH 18





8:17 A.M. MAXIM TIME

Nell closed her eyes as she felt the three glorious showerheads douse her body with jets of hot water. The last two days had been spent peering through Stalin’s window into Pandemonium. She was in heaven peering into hell, where each discovery was a revelation.

As she watched the suds spiral down her leg now, her soapy eyes and groggy sense memory suddenly formed the image of a Henders Island disk-ant emerging from the drain next to her big toe. She screamed and jumped two feet against the shower stall as the vision rattled her nervous system like an electric shock.

She shook, naked in the corner of the stall, as she looked down dumbly at the drain, wiping the soap from her eyes as nothing but foam circled the drain. Geoffrey opened the shower door and rushed in, embracing her with his clothes on under the water. He looked at the drain where she pointed and saw nothing, stroking her head. “It’s OK!”

She tried to breathe. “I thought I saw a disk-ant. Coming out of the drain!” She sobbed.

“It’s OK!” he repeated. “We’re not on Henders Island. It’s OK!”

She nodded. “OK,” she breathed, feeling calmer in his arms. “Damn. I’m sorry!”

“No problem…”

“Geoffrey?”

“Yes?”

“We still need to make a call outside to let people know where we are.”

“You’re right. I’ll remind Maxim first thing. It’s been easy to forget the past couple days.”

“I know, but people will start to worry. We need to do it right away.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Thanks.” She hugged him, closing her eyes.


8:59 A.M.

Maxim himself waited for them this morning at the curb in front of their honeymoon cottage. He greeted them beside two limousines, one black and one white, offering Nell a bouquet of a dozen fresh roses.

“Nice!” She smelled them. “They’re fresh?”

“Grown right here in Pobedograd,” Maxim said.

“Really? I’ll set them on the stoop for later. Thank you!”

Geoffrey noticed that the air was quite smoggy this morning, having accumulated the exhaust of hundreds of vehicles and generators. Despite Maxim’s guarantee that the power plant would be on, the city was no brighter than the “night” before. “Another day in paradise, eh?” Geoffrey said, gently ribbing the tycoon as he waved the air.

“Power will soon be on,” Maxim grumbled, rankled by the dig. But he soon recovered his joviality as he reached into his jacket. “I neglected to give you your payments. For you, my dear, and for you.” Maxim handed them both envelopes.

“Not really two million dollars?” Nell said.

“Each.” Maxim nodded. “As promised.”

“Wow!” Geoffrey whispered.

“Thank you, Maxim,” Nell said.

“It’s nothing. Especially after taxes.”

“Maxim, before I forget again,” Geoffrey said. “We need to make calls outside to let people know we’re OK.”

“Of course!” Maxim laughed. “With so much excitement, it simply slipped my mind. You may both make as many calls as you like back at the conservatory. But I need both of you this morning, if you don’t mind a slight delay. I was hoping you will come with me to activate the power plant, Geoffrey. As well as bringing day to night, and starting the city’s much-needed ventilation system, the power plant will charge a whole fleet of electric cars, which will finally clear up our smog problem.”

Maxim’s daughter, Sasha, jumped out of the white limo dressed all in white, matching her cheerful dog. “I hope so, Papa!” she shouted, running toward him. She jumped up to kiss his beard as he bent down. “Because this place stinks! Don’t you think so, Nell?”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Maxim said. “But I told Sasha she could go along with you on a tour of the farm. I would very much appreciate your opinion, as a botanist, Nell.”

Nell nodded, glancing at Geoffrey. “Sounds interesting!”

“Don’t worry about Geoffrey. We will get him back to Hell’s Window by lunchtime,” Maxim said. “Then you may make as many phone calls as you wish.”

“Promise?” Nell said.

“Yes.”

Sasha tugged her arm. “Come on, Nell!”

Nell kissed Geoffrey as they parted.


9:03 A.M.

Nell peered into the back of the white limousine, which was upholstered in lavender leather and rhinestones. Wearing a matching collar, Sasha’s happy, snow-white Samoyed barked noisily in the doorway, batting the air with his tail.

“Shush, Ivan!” Sasha shouted. “Don’t worry, he’s a big baby.” She nudged the dog aside and waved Nell into the oval of plush seats.

Nell climbed into Sasha’s world as the chauffeur shut the door behind them. She admired the little girl’s glacier-blue eyes, which were wide and expectant, exerting an irresistible gravity much like her father’s. The white limo charged west as Maxim’s black limo pulled a U-turn and headed east along the riverfront.


9:05 A.M.

The friendly dog sat between Nell and the formidable czarina, who inserted a CD of pop songs sung by kids, clicking ahead to her favorite track. “I think you’ll like the garden, Nell!” she yelled over the sugary music blaring out of the speakers. “Botanists study plants, right?”

“Yes,” Nell said. “Right.”

The young girl had a confident and more capable air than her ten years implied. If she was bored giving another tour to a guest, she was handling it quite graciously. There was something else in her demeanor, though, too, Nell thought: a sadness or a maturity, Nell couldn’t quite decide which. Either way, Nell was surprised to find herself liking this little princess.

“You’ll love Dennis,” Sasha said to Nell. “He reminds me of a pear. But he’s really nice! I call him ‘Veggie-Man.’ Not because he grows vegetables but because he is a vegetable!” She giggled. “He’s made of vegetables, I think. Right, Ivan?”

Ivan barked once and smiled next to her, hanging a sly tongue out to one side and panting breath that smelled like smoked salmon.

As the limousine cruised around a curve in the road, they headed north along the cavern’s western wall. On the right they passed spoked avenues that glimpsed the giant tower in the city’s center and the bronze colossi at the end of each street. “That’s the Star Tower, down Lenin Boulevard,” Sasha said, pointing up one of the streets. “My dad lives there, on the top floor.”

Nell spotted Lenin himself pointing like a setter at the base of the tower.

“That’s him,” Sasha noted, nodding. “There’s a ton of statues of him, all over the place. My dad melted a lot of them down to make other statues.”

“How long have you been here, Sasha?”

“Two months!” groaned the girl, squirming with agony. Nell seemed to have struck a nerve. “But we won’t be here forever.” Sasha sighed with melodramatic worldliness. “Right?”

“Right.” Nell nodded, smiling. “Where’s your mom?”

“Dead.” Sasha shrugged. “She died when I was a baby. I get bounced around a lot.”

“Do you get outside sometimes?”

“No.” Sasha seemed to have a lot to say but frowned instead. “I hope Papa turns the power on. How do you like his city? It’s haunted, you know.”

They came to a gate in the western wall with a steel door marked SEKTOP 5. Sasha rolled down the window, confessing to her in a whisper: “I hate the guards! But they hate me, too, so it’s OK.” She reached out an arm and flipped them off. The guards opened the door and dryly waved them through.

They entered another gigantic natural cave. The void stretched left and right through the rock, nearly as large as the main cavern, in a long oval that sloped north. The floor of the chamber was covered by rows of tall three-tiered benches, some of which were draped with plastic sheets to make pitched greenhouses. Some carried hydroponic plant beds, but the vast majority carried dark rows of huge glass flasks. Only a small portion of these benches was illuminated with grow lights, spreading to the north and south of a large circular clearing where the limo now stopped.

At the edge of the clearing sat a dilapidated Soviet-era LiAZ bus the size of a Winnebago whose rubber tires were cracked and peeling off its wheels. Nell saw that it was illuminated and occupied. The derelict bus had apparently been retrofitted into some kind of field lab.

As she climbed out of the white limo with Sasha, Nell observed an enormous lighting fixture hanging from the ceiling. Four hundred feet above them, it gleamed like a crystalline structure, an aurora borealis shifting inside the dense lattice of beams.

A friendly-looking man in a lab coat that stretched over his potbelly greeted them now as he stepped out of the big Soviet bus. “Sasha and Ivan!” he called. He gave an awkward wave as he stooped to greet the excited Samoyed that nearly knocked him over.

“Papa wants you to show Nell your garden, Dennis,” Sasha said. “She’s a botanist!”

“Yes! Thank you, Sasha. I’ve been expecting you, Doctor. Welcome.” He wiped his dog-licked hand on his coat and reached it out to her. “Dennis Appleton. I’m the man in charge of the farm. It’s not a garden, Sasha,” he chided.

Sasha smirked. “Whatever.”

Nell clasped his damp hand, smiling. “Nice to meet you. I’m Nell Duckworth—um, Binswanger,” she corrected herself. “Sorry—just got married. Old habit.”

“Will you keep both names?”

“Well…” She shrugged. “We’re thinking about it.”

Dennis nodded. “Changing names is a conundrum I’m glad men don’t usually have to face.” He shook her hand graciously. “But a rose is a rose.”

“Thank you,” Nell said.

“You’re welcome. I am Pobedograd’s agricultural engineer. I graduated from the University of Nebraska and was born in Iowa, believe it or not. I never thought I’d end up here.” Dennis Appleton laughed good-naturedly. “It’s nice to have some company from home. Well, it’s not much of a farm right now, I must admit. We’re waiting for the power to be turned on.” Dennis pointed a baby-carrot-shaped finger straight up. “When the lights are turned on, we should be able to harvest oxygen and enough food to feed the entire city. Let me show you what we’ve been able to do so far with the limited energy that we have. To the south are all of our greenhouses. We have rows and rows of tomatoes, herbs, greens, onions, shallots, and lots of flowers, which are all quite edible, too, by the way.”

“I guess this is where my roses came from?” Nell asked.

“Yes! Maxim insists we grow our own,” Dennis said. “Please, come with me.”

He led them to the north edge of the broad clearing. Nell, Sasha, and Ivan followed him between two lit rows of plant beds. “Fresh flowers, carrots, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, strawberries, and herbs are already being grown here for the restaurants and guests. The rest of our vegetables are still brought in, but that will change soon.”

On one side, the plant beds were replaced by glass vats on benches stacked three high. The jars must have held two hundred gallons each and were half-filled with bubbling green liquid like horror-movie lab props.

“Growing algae?” Nell guessed.

“Yes. Exactly! It’s a very good source of nutrients and oxygen. All of these jars and growing benches are original to the city. Apparently, they were preparing to cultivate algae here back in the 1950s, which was a pretty advanced notion back then.”

Dennis smiled, and Nell noticed that his teeth looked like white corn kernels. His pale turnip-colored face was crowned by corn silk–blond hair around a pale melonlike bald spot. Nell giggled involuntarily, unable to shake Sasha’s characterization of him as the “Veggie-Man.”

“We’re also growing areca palms, reed palms, English ivy, peace lilies, various ferns, and weeping figs,” he said.

“Why those species?” Nell wondered.

“They’re low light and have high rates of photosynthesis. And they’re all good air purifiers that counteract off-gassed chemicals in the city’s atmosphere. We will plant them throughout the city when the power comes on.”

“This sector does seem a little fresher than the others.” Nell breathed appreciatively. “How many scientists have come here?”

“Well,” Dennis Appleton looked a little reticent. “I have a small crew of horticulturists. But you and the others are some of the first outside scientists Maxim has invited. The rest of us had to agree to live here for the rest of our lives just for the chance to work here.”

“No! You’re kidding?” Nell said.

“No, no, I’m not kidding, sort of,” Dennis said, blushing like a russet potato. “We have a good deal here, actually. When they finally get the power on, it will be much better. You guys weren’t brought in with the same security agreements the rest of us had to sign off on, were you?”

“I don’t think so,” Nell said.

“That’s because Papa needs your help, Nell,” Sasha said. The young girl nodded ominously.

“We’re just consultants,” Nell confirmed. “Maxim said we could leave in a few weeks, at most. But you are kidding, right?”

“Oh, of course, I’m exaggerating. He lets us out sometimes.” Dennis chuckled.

Nell noted a strange intensity in Sasha’s eyes as they reached the end of the illuminated rows. They proceeded past the edge of the light into the darkness. High up on the west wall of the cavern, a multicolored starburst like a cracked windshield stretching hundreds of feet. Its branching fractures glowed colors like a batik scratched in black wax. “Is this chamber next to—?” Nell began.

“Pandemonium?” Appleton asked. “Yes. At least along the upper half of the western wall. I know what you’re thinking: that there must be a breach.” He pointed a dainty finger at the glowing cracks. “Apparently the hyphae are penetrating through microscopic cracks and fissures in the rocks.”

“What are hyphae?” Sasha asked.

“The main part of a fungus’s body,” Nell said, concerned.

“Oh.”

“Kind of like the roots and stems,” Appleton said.

“Whatever.” Sasha shrugged.

“However, as far as we can tell,” Dennis said, “that wall’s at least eighty feet thick, even at its narrowest point. And no fungus was present here before we brought in a sample from Pandemonium. Speaking of…” Nell saw that the shelves to each side carried beds of glowing fungus: fleshy, lacy rinds like tripe ridged with mushroom caps glowed in six colors that were separated into squares. “We grew all of this from one sample scooped from Pandemonium,” Dennis said. “It divided itself by color as it spread to each bed.”

“Rainbowfire,” Nell murmured, delighted to see it up close.

“That’s a good name, Nell,” Sasha said.

Dennis nodded. “Very apt.”

“What does it feed on?” Nell asked.

“In each bed there is a different kind of organic matter. Each color of fungus seems to colonize a different fertilizer. Either that or different nutrients cause them to change color the way hydrangeas turn blue or pink depending on the pH of the soil.” Dennis shrugged. “We’re not sure.”

“So why is it growing in the cracks on the wall, then? It must be eating something organic, right?”

“Yes. We think that a cave-in in Pandemonium may have impacted that wall long ago and caused those fractures. Over many millennia, organic material infiltrated through the cracks. The pattern on the wall did not show up until we brought samples of—‘rainbowfire,’ as you call it—from Pandemonium into the farm. So we think the spores, which fly everywhere, must have taken root in the nutrients inside the cracks.”

“Yuck!” Sasha covered her mouth. “Spores are flying everywhere?” She choked, coughing.

Nell laughed. “Don’t worry, honey. If it hasn’t killed everyone already, it’s probably OK.”

Ivan lifted his leg, and a lower flat of orange rainbowfire turned blue where the canine squirted a yellow stream of urine.

Sasha squealed with laughter. “Ivan!”

“It’s OK,” Dennis said. “That’s actually quite interesting.”

He and Nell both stooped to look at the color change.

Sasha rolled her eyes. “You guys are weird!”

“We kind of hope the spores will spread to other sectors,” Dennis said. “At least they would provide some light there. Until the power is turned on, of course.”

“Where did you get the sample of rainbowfire?” Nell asked.

“We scraped it from the landing of the gondola.”

“Gondola? The gondola that goes across Pandemonium?” Nell turned to him, grinning excitedly.

“Yes.”

“Have you ridden on it?” Nell asked, an eager spark igniting in her eyes. “Does it go to the island in the middle of the lake?”

“No, I haven’t ridden it.” Dennis wiped his glasses. “I really don’t think it’s still working.”

“There’s a tram that goes from Papa’s tower to the palace,” Sasha bragged. “That’s what I use to visit him. It’s really fun, Nell!”

“That does sound like fun, Sasha. So, how do you combat mildew down here?” Nell asked.

“Grrr! If you two are going to talk about mildew, can you give me some carrots to feed Ivan, Dennis?”

“OK, Sasha,” Dennis said. “Come this way.”

He led them back to the carrot beds.


8:58 A.M.

Maxim shouted: “Sector Three, Boris!” and rapped on the tinted glass behind him.

“Khorosho!” replied his driver.

Maxim tapped his knees, facing Geoffrey. “How is your honeymoon, my friend?”

Geoffrey grinned. “Fantastic. You’re a madman, Maxim. I can’t wait to get back to Hell’s Window. Nell thinks there must be another window downstairs, underwater?”

Maxim laughed. “I promise you there is much more to see. In due time! This morning we are on verge of starting Pobedograd’s heart. Without power, this city will die. When plant is on, day will replace night. We will no longer be dependent on surface for power. I appreciate your company this morning, Geoffrey. Tell me. You were on Henders Island, I believe?”

“Yes.” Geoffrey nodded. “I survived Henders Island.”

“What would you say was best strategy for surviving there, eh?”

Geoffrey shrugged at the random question. “Leaving,” he said.

Maxim raised a wry eyebrow. “What else?”

Geoffrey found the question odd, but not unusual. “Well, hendros got around by killing large animals to draw predators into feeding frenzies. It seemed to work. It saved my life once, in fact.”

“Ah. Very interesting. A metaphor for civilization, I think.”

“Perhaps. Also, many animals on the island sprayed warning pheromones when they detected salt water, an adaptation to life on a shrinking landmass surrounded by ocean. Salt water acts like a tranquilizer on the copper-based metabolism of Henders organisms, paralyzing and killing them, since they could not hypo-osmoregulate. Spraying salt water on the organisms caused them to spray a warning pheromone, which turned out to be a rather effective repellent.”

Maxim nodded with great interest. “That is very strange.”

“No. Not really. Crows rile up ants to get them to attack and spray formic acid on their feathers, which is an effective repellent for parasites.”

“Really?”

“I watched one crow sit for ten minutes with its wings extended over an ant trail.” Geoffrey laughed. “Crows are smart.”

Maxim grinned. “I see I got the right man for this job.” He laughed and slapped Geoffrey’s knee. “I like you, Geoffrey. You have passion for your work. That is good!”

They passed work details along the streets, and Geoffrey noticed all the men stopped and stared with blank eyes at the limo as it quickly passed. The expression on the men’s faces chilled Geoffrey as the car turned onto the street they had taken when they first arrived, which proceeded north at the eastern edge of the city.

“Pobedograd will be paradise,” Maxim said in a forceful voice that was one part dreamer and one part gangster, Geoffrey thought as the mogul continued. “We have natural hot springs, riverfront penthouses, casinos, nightclubs, theaters, spas, swimming pools, art galleries—we even have a unique ecosystem for scientists to study, eh, Geoffrey? Timeshares and property are available to all those who help make my dream come true. You are certainly among those. In case of worldwide catastrophe—which seems more likely every day—such refuge will be valuable. Don’t you agree? The population of this city is a cross section of best world has to offer. People of every profession are represented.” Maxim considered, and grinned. “Except for politicians. They can go to hell, instead. There is no room for them here. We don’t need their laws.”

“Many of the world’s biggest crooks could afford a ticket to Pobedograd, I guess,” Geoffrey speculated. “And probably wouldn’t mind a place like this to hide from the law.”

Maxim frowned. “Do not worry, Geoffrey. I am businessman. I must have principles to stay in business, unlike politicians. And you should know that heroes are often branded criminals by villains.”

“And you are the judge of who is who here. Am I right?”

“Yes. Here, I am.”

“I see. Well, in the event of disaster, it’s good to know there’s a place we can come to live in a dictatorship,” Geoffrey mused, challenging the oligarch with a wry look.

Maxim seemed to enjoy his friendly jab. “As I said, Geoffrey, I’m a benevolent dictator. Laissez-faire!”

“Yes, but money wouldn’t be worth much down here in the event of a global catastrophe,” Geoffrey said, probing.

“You are right, again. I accept only value as payment, in goods or services, along with lifelong commitment to Pobedograd’s security. When we are self-sufficient, people will be able to survive here for generations without ever leaving.”

Geoffrey concealed his surprise at the statement. “Well. I would hope leaving is always an option.”

“Of course.” Maxim grinned. “So do I. But why would anyone want to, I wonder?”

“They justified the Iron Curtain that way, didn’t they?”

“A curtain can be a shield, too, Geoffrey, when it’s made of iron.”

They stopped before the northern gate marked SECTOR TWO. Guards activated the steel door, and the heavy barrier rolled aside.

The limo entered the desolate medieval labyrinth of Sector Two, which seemed to be a grid of streets around square blocks of two-story buildings with crude façades carved into bands of limestone and salt. A hundred yards in, they turned right, and sixty feet later, they stopped before another steel door painted with tall red letters: SEKTOP 3. Two guards rose from their chairs and activated the door.

They passed through a short tunnel that opened on a three-story building on the north side of a short street that dead-ended 150 feet straight ahead at another guarded door that read SEKTOP 4 in giant letters.

A black SUV idled in front of the building as their limo pulled up and stopped behind it. Geoffrey noticed that the windows in the second story of the building were lit. Over the entrance, an entablature read:



No Latin lettering this time. According to Geoffrey’s faint memory of the Cyrillic alphabet, the first word might be “observatory.” But that made no sense under a mountain. “What is this building?” he asked.

“Hospital,” Maxim said as he rolled down the window.

Geoffrey smelled the gasoline exhaust waft through the crack; this place was worse than Hong Kong, he thought.

Maxim pushed his head out of the window and yelled, “Let’s go!”

The black Suburban abruptly pulled out in front of them.

The steel door at the end of the street slid open as two guards stepped aside.

Maxim rolled up the window as his armored limo took off behind the SUV, and Geoffrey noticed the sentries quickly close the gate behind them as they accelerated.


9:07 A.M.

“Ivan hasn’t eaten anything but carrots today, but he needs to go doody. I’m taking him for a walk down Compost Alley.”

“OK! That’s Ivan’s personal dog run,” Dennis explained. “We compost everything here, of course.”

“When you’re done talking about irrigation, we’ll be over there.” Sasha rolled her eyes. She motioned Ivan to follow her and disappeared with the dog under a shelf of algae flasks.

“Wow,” Nell said. “She’s something.”

“She certainly is,” Dennis nodded and looked at his watch. He frowned, sighing.

“What’s the matter?”

“The initiation of our power supply seems to have been postponed. Once again.… I had hoped the lights would be on for our tour today,” he apologized. “Most of the projects we are working on will require a strong light source, of course.…” Dennis looked up at the dimly lit lighting structure hanging from the high ceiling. “They must be having more trouble.”

“Nell!” Sasha called. “Come here!” Her voice echoed across the rows.

Dennis shrugged. “You might as well go with her. There’s not much more to see at the moment.”

“Well, it was nice meeting you, Dennis. See you around.” Nell shook his hand and ducked under the lower bench of algae jugs. “Where are you?” she called from the next row over.

“Over here!” Sasha’s voice sang like an opera singer.

“OK.” Nell stooped and crawled under the lower shelf of another row of bottles.

“One more!” Sasha shouted, and Nell climbed under the next row. As she came out from under, Sasha kissed her on the forehead and Ivan licked her face. “Ha ha ha!”

Nell laughed as she climbed to her feet and dusted off. “There you are!”

“Come on!” Sasha ran, leading Ivan and Nell with a lavender flashlight she had taken out of her purse and pointed north into the dark.

“Where are we going?” Nell asked.

“A secret passage!”

“Where does it lead?”

“The palace, of course! Crummy old Stalin wanted to have lots of food for himself, so he built a secret passage to the farm!”

“Oh. Wow!”

Sasha and Ivan took Nell through the dark, led more by Ivan’s nose than by Sasha’s flashlight, and they finally arrived at the northwest corner of Sector Five. The young girl, her white clothes now smudged with dirt like her snow-white dog, opened a small panel in the rock face, revealing a hatch wheel. She jumped up as she cranked it down, twice. A door popped out, disguised to look like part of the natural wall. Sasha and Ivan wedged it open to a tunnel, which coursed to the left and right.

“The palace is this way!” Sasha whispered as Ivan took off to the right.

Nell followed her through the door, and Sasha pulled it closed. Then they ran after Ivan.

“Where does the other direction go?” Nell asked.

“To your honeymoon suite!” Sasha laughed. “That’s where Stalin took his sweeties!” she shouted over her shoulder. “I think it goes to the railroad in Sector Seven, too. So he could make his getaway back to Moscow!”

Nell tried to catch up with the precocious princess through the barrel-vaulted corridor that headed steeply uphill. “Have you gone down there?” Nell panted. “Back the other way?”

“No,” Sasha said. “I tried to go down there once, but I saw a ghost! A really scary ghost. Ivan tried to bite it.”

Nell sweated in the warm, stuffy air as she followed Sasha up the stifling passage, with a few glances over her shoulder at the deep dark behind them.

They finally reached a wall with a hatch, which opened into a room with a red velvet curtain similar to the one in the conservatory, but only a third of the size.

Sasha closed the door behind them, breathing dramatically. “I’m pooped!” she whispered.

Nell saw a glass-tubed spiral stairway in the far left corner, like the one in the conservatory. Most of this room appeared to be used for storage, with crates of canned and dry foods and stacks of bottled water.

“Can you open these curtains?” Nell said.

“Yes. You’re going to love it, Nell!” Sasha ran to the right side of the curtain and jumped up, giving a golden sash a full pull downward and laughing in delight as Nell ran to look through the opening crack.

Nell exhaled and could barely catch her breath as the ten-foot-wide window revealed an underwater world brimming with luminous creatures darting, swirling, and bobbing on the other side of the glass.

Sasha overheard shouts nearby and she ran down a hallway to the right of the window. Ivan ran ahead of her and sniffed at the hatch at the end of the hallway, which was slightly open. Sasha peered through at the palace foyer and shushed Ivan, perking her ear at the opening. She overheard the guards talking there:

“Find Nell Binswanger. Take her to Sector Three immediately, but don’t alarm her,” said a voice in Russian. “Tell her that her husband requested her presence.”

“Yes, sir!”

Sasha didn’t breathe as she slowly pulled the door closed and turned the crank wheel to lock it. Then she ran back to Nell with Ivan. “Stay here, Nell!” she whispered as she ran past her and up the spiral stairway with Ivan.

Nell hardly heard her, gaping through the portal at a sea that might have existed 300 million years ago, but no: almost every underwater species she saw was new, unprecedented, revolutionary. Horned chitons slid over the glass, hunted by fluorescent sea spiders as thousands of ammonites jetted in schools chasing blue squids. A star-shaped giant opened its monstrous arms on the bottom of the lake.

Sasha raised an eye over the edge of the second floor, peering into the empty conservatory. A buffet table had been laid out with breakfast to the right of the great window. Ivan whimpered as he smelled sausages and bacon. But the rest of the scientists were not there.


9:32 A.M.

As Nell’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see the giant starfish on the lake bottom open and a plume of particles erupt from its center. Out of nowhere, glowing schools of neon blue bullet-shaped squids appeared, flashing red light as they fed on the plume of food.


9:33 A.M.

Sasha let Ivan follow her into the conservatory, running to her father’s desk. Ivan sat, restrained, in front of the breakfast buffet in whimpering reverence as Sasha scanned the bank of video monitors on the wall behind her father’s chair. She spotted the one showing the lab in Sector Three. All the scientists she had met two days ago were there except for Nell and Geoffrey. “No,” she whispered, and tears streaked her crumpled face. She could see that they were arguing and angry. The men in front of them were guards, and they were pointing their guns at the scientists.

“Sasha!” came a loud voice.

She jumped, and Ivan barked, leaving his place before the altar of food to stand by her side.

Galia pushed in the hatch to the conservatory and glared at her. “Have you seen Nell Binswanger?” he asked.

“Who?”

“Dr. Binswanger?”

“Oh. Yeah. Her.” Sasha shrugged. “Why?”

“She needs to catch a shuttle, right away.”

Sasha turned away from him. “She’s in the farm. Talking about fertilizer, I think.” She went to the banquet table and loaded food onto a plate. “Ivan’s hungry,” she said. She put another plate down on top of the thick pile of food. Then she looked casually at the cadaverous associate of her father, smirking. “And screw you, Galia, by the way.”

Galia blushed, adding a little color to his gray face. “Sasha—”

“Toodles!” She waved and Ivan barked good-bye as they both ran and jumped down the spiral stairs.


9:35 A.M.

Nell turned to exclaim in awe as Sasha motioned silence to her and ran past her.

Adrenaline tightened Nell’s body as she saw the terrified expression on Sasha’s face.

“Come on!” the girl whispered, motioning Nell to follow her as she hurried down the hallway toward the foyer. “I know where to hide you!”

“What’s going on?” Nell whispered.

Someone’s feet started pounding down the spiral stairs behind them. “Galia!” Sasha whispered.

Halfway down the hall, Sasha pushed on a narrow panel of inlaid stone on the left side and it slid inward, revealing a tight passage. Ivan wiggled through first, and Sasha motioned Nell to follow him. Nell squeezed into the crevice, and Sasha slipped in behind her.


9:36 A.M.

Galia jumped down the spiral stairs two at a time and entered the storage room. He noticed the curtains on the window had been opened, and he touched the fog that was still on the glass from Nell’s breath.

Galia pounced down the corridor, following a hunch—which led nowhere. He grimaced. Where could she have gone this time?


9:37 A.M.

“You seem to be in a hurry,” Geoffrey said.

“We are in a cave, Geoffrey,” Maxim explained calmly as the two cars raced through the void. “Much of our power and all of our oxygen comes from the surface, but we cannot rely on those sources forever. Exhaust from gasoline-powered generators and vehicles is filling Pobedograd with smog, as you have noticed. We need clean energy. We are now one button away from creating it. And not a moment too soon.” Maxim smiled.

Geoffrey nodded. “Well, what kind of power are we talking about? Nuclear?”

“No! Pobedograd’s engineers built a dry steam geothermal generator for the city, but never activated it. The largest dry steam project in whole world is located north of San Francisco,” Maxim said. “It was built in 1960 and is most successful alternative energy project in world history. Pobedograd’s dry steam plant was built two years before that, and it is completely self-sustaining.”

“Ah, well done,” Geoffrey said. “How does it work?”

“Soviet engineers discovered a huge reservoir of steam in sandstone layer under Mount Kazar which is heated by six-mile-wide lake of magma,” Maxim said. “Using this geothermal energy the dry steam power plant they designed will feed electricity and heat to the city and, at the same time, pump water from river to injection wells, replenishing steam reservoir indefinitely.”

“Incredible!”

“All we must do now, Geoffrey, is detonate caps at the bottom of the well. The steam that rises will drive the power plant’s turbines. Only one button needs to be pushed to set the plant into perpetual motion.” Maxim’s casual smile failed to mask his apparent frustration.

As he spoke, the car squealed right and hurtled down a narrow road behind the speeding SUV. A long dark warehouse streamed by them on their right. On the left, a steep plane of rock like the polished side of a great pyramid sloped from the edge of the road.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Geoffrey asked.

The warehouse ended, and a rock wall rimmed the road on the right straight up to the roof, 450 feet above them.

“I mean, if that’s all it takes to turn the power on,” Geoffrey said, “why haven’t you done it already?”

They continued a few hundred yards before they finally stopped at the foot of stairs carved straight up the gleaming slope of rock on the left side of the road.

“We are not waiting any longer, Geoffrey,” Maxim said. “We’re here. The power plant is up these stairs. Are you ready?”

Five men got out of the SUV in front of them, pointing machine guns in every direction. “Come on, move fast,” Maxim said. “As fast as you ever did on Henders Island!”

Maxim opened the door. Geoffrey got out behind him and noticed that the air was at least fifteen degrees warmer in this part of the city.

“What?” Geoffrey did a double take as the five guards ran up the stairway with Maxim lunging three steps at a time behind them. Alarmed by their frantic haste, Geoffrey sprang up the stairs after them, wondering why they were in such a hurry.

He looked around intently, but there did not seem to be any imminent danger. Perhaps they were afraid of some invisible gas, Geoffrey hypothesized, though the warm air seemed fresh compared to the other sectors.

As Geoffrey pumped his legs up the stone steps behind the others, he was reminded of the pyramid in Palenque he had climbed as a boy. He was impressed by the stamina of the billionaire in front of him as his own lungs bellowed and sweat poured down his face. Then Geoffrey saw a large building that resembled the bridge of a battleship at the top of the polished slope to their left. Dim light swirled in the long windows of the building, which he guessed must be the power plant Maxim had referred to.

Half the distance to the building, the stairs ended at a small terrace. The guards’ flashlights illuminated a heavy ten-foot-wide steel hatch to their right. It was set in a rock face that reached ninety feet up to the cavern’s ceiling, which was bearded with stalactites.

“OK,” whispered Maxim to his men, reaching his arms out to them. He had bounded up the stairs without a pause for nearly a hundred yards. He was a powerhouse of a man, Geoffrey realized as he caught his breath. Maxim pressed close, addressing them like a quarterback in a huddle. “Geoffrey, I want you to identify any animals you see.”

Geoffrey nodded. “OK.”

“Be ready for anything!” Maxim stressed.

A guard who was even bigger than Maxim, a giant, opened the huge door. The other four went in first. Maxim pushed Geoffrey in as the giant guard shoved the heavy door closed behind them.

They stood on a metal landing inside a tall cylinder faceted with purple crystals. The crystals shimmered on the walls hundreds of feet into the dark above them like a gigantic geode. The air felt sauna hot and dry inside the vertical chamber.

A phalanx of seven massive aluminum pipes rose from the bottomless shadow below. Fifty feet above, the enormous steam culverts elbowed together into a tunnel cut through the glittering wall of the crystal chimney.

A short flight of steel stairs before them joined a catwalk that ringed the column of dry steam pipes. On the far side, Geoffrey could see a stairway zigzagging from the catwalk up the wall to a corridor on the left, which presumably led to the power plant. The men’s flashlights illuminated electrical conduits running up the side of the huge steam ducts. Thick cords had been patched into the conduits, joining a cable plugged into a heavy-duty yellow switch that lay on the catwalk connected to a car battery between the reaching arms of two men who were obviously dead.

Geoffrey’s eyes followed the guard’s jerking flashlights over the catwalk and saw that at least a dozen corpses were strewn across it. The empty drape of their clothing outlined skeletons. Their hands were chalk drawings of bone dust. They wore the same bulletproof vests and black uniforms worn by Maxim’s other guards, who jabbed their weapons everywhere now as they peered into the shadows.

“When did those men die?” Geoffrey asked.

Maxim raised a finger and whispered back. “Three nights ago.”

Geoffrey’s blood froze. “What is going on?”

Maxim yelled, “Now! Punch that f*cking button!”

One of the guards darted down the metal stairs and tripped over one of the bodies lying there, falling noisily onto the catwalk that circled the steam ducts. The racket echoed up and down the shaft around them.

Geoffrey glanced up into the towering well above. Like pixie dust shaken off the walls, a phosphorescent storm swirled and descended like a living funnel cloud gathering. He hit his host’s broad arm and pointed. “Look!”

“What is it?” Maxim said.

“I don’t know. But it’s coming!”

Maxim roared, “Hurry!”

Geoffrey saw the horde of glowing green creatures swirling down the shaft flare brighter at the sound of Maxim’s voice. A distinctive hum grew, a wheezing, ringing buzz that paralyzed him; it was a sound he could never forget. He tried to convince himself he could only be imagining it.

The guard untangled himself from an electrical cable looped around his foot as the other guards yelled at him.

They all heard the screaming swarm descending.

“Keep going!” Maxim shouted.

The man dived for the switch on the catwalk below. On the other side of the switch, glowing creatures emerged from the hairy skull of one of the corpses and shot straight into the man’s eyes and mouth.

The men above heard his gurgling scream as it was cut short.

Geoffrey recognized the milky flow pouring down the walls as tiny Frisbees launched out of it at the convulsing man on the catwalk and the man reached out his arms toward the detonator, his hands falling inches short.

“No!” Maxim yelled, and he started down the steps, but Geoffrey and his chief guard pulled him with enough strength to hold him back as the horde closed in. Two guards began opening the hatch behind them.

Geoffrey pushed Maxim through the hatch and leaped after him as the guards closed it behind them.

Even through the steel door, they could hear the wheezing drone that filled the well inside. The hulking guard stood with his back to the sealed hatch, talking through his walkie-talkie while directing the others to get Maxim back to the car.

“No!” Maxim shouted, and he dived at the door again as his four guards restrained him.

“You can’t go in there, chief!” said the guard who stood against the hatch.

With his mind still scrambled by what he had just witnessed, Geoffrey thought he could see a strange luminescence behind the guard standing before the hatch. As he reasoned that it must be a trick of light, perhaps emanating from the guard’s flashlight, a glowing replica of the door peeled away, arching over the guard. “Watch out!” Geoffrey shouted.

The guard looked up and screamed as a luminous creature wrapped around his back and shoulders like a cape.

“Get it off me!” the giant man wailed, trying to move, but the animal stuck to his back like taffy, gluing him against the door.

They all backed away and Maxim pointed at Geoffrey. “Tell me what it is, damn it!”

Geoffrey yelled, “I don’t know!”

The screaming guard heaved back and forth, stuck to the door as a white blob like the head of an enormous slug enveloped his face and its translucent flesh turned crimson.

The other guards opened fire with their machine guns, riddling the man’s body until he crumpled forward, peeling away from the hatch. His back was cloaked by a glistening mass. Then suddenly, his headless torso rose and in place of his head was a pale, amorphous lump with huge black eyes. His arms reached toward them.

“Jesus—!” Geoffrey gasped.

The guards fired dozens of rounds at it, filling the cave with cacophonous echoes until the apparition finally fell again.

Geoffrey waved them off and crept forward to look at what was left.

“Tell me what it is!” Maxim shouted.

“It’s got suction cups on the bottom,” Geoffrey said, shaking his head, incredulous. “I think it’s a freaking octopus.…” He looked at Maxim in astonishment.

“It’s not from Henders Island?” Maxim asked.

Geoffrey looked at him. “What?”

“How did it do that to him?” asked one guard.

“It possessed him,” answered another. “Like a devil!”

“It is the Devil,” said another.

“Shut up, you idiots!” Maxim ordered. “Geoffrey?”

Geoffrey looked down at the squirming flesh that was ruptured by exit wounds on the man’s back and limbs. The mollusk’s mass had seemed to grab hold of the man’s arms and legs like an external musculature and, with beaklike suction cups, vise-gripped his bones at the hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows, and wrists. “It’s using him like a puppet,” Geoffrey muttered in awe.

The giant muscle contracted on the guard’s back, and the dead man’s arms and legs jerked into a crouching position before them as Geoffrey jumped back with the others. The mollusk’s amorphous head looked at them with glistening black eyes, foaming red blood from its loose mouth.

“Look!” Another guard pointed at the wall beside them.

Three more ovals the size of men slid down the rock face toward them, blending into the rock as they moved.

“More!” Geoffrey said.

The distant sound of breaking glass echoed in the cavern.

The guards turned and bolted down the stairs toward the cars waiting below as Geoffrey pushed Maxim after them.

As they descended, Geoffrey saw a green swarm below flooding over the road toward the vehicles. Up the street, he could see it pouring like a firefall out of a window in the warehouse. He knew, as he looked at the cloud of creatures and heard their whining buzz, that nothing he had seen in Pandemonium glowed this particular shade of green. And there was nothing else that made this sound. Geoffrey heard slaps behind him on the stairs and glanced over his shoulder.

The ghostly octopus was actually using the guard’s body to stumble and lunge down the stairs behind them now.

The green cloud of bugs on the road ahead split about eighty yards to their right, one half flying up over the smooth slope toward the dimly lit windows of the power plant, the other heading straight for the cars below.

“What are those?” The guard in front of Maxim pointed at shimmering creatures springing in thirty-foot leaps ahead of the swarm rushing down the road.

“Rats,” Geoffrey hissed, dumbfounded.

“They don’t look like rats!” another guard said.

“Henders rats,” Geoffrey muttered.

As they headed toward the bottom of the stairs, he realized the guards ahead of them would make it to the limo in time to avoid the wave of predators, but he and Maxim would not.

Maxim looked over his shoulder and saw the shambling ghost-octopus picking up speed as it perfected its method of locomoting, pulling itself forward with the guard’s arms and using his torso like a gruesome sled as it accelerated down the stairs behind Geoffrey. Ten yards from the street, the man-puppet pounced and Maxim pushed Geoffrey down.

“Duck!” the Russian growled, and he crouched with Geoffrey against the stairs as the ghost sailed over them, shooting white tendrils from its head that stuck on the nearest guard’s back like gooey ropes. The flying chimera reeled the tendrils in, soaring over their heads and into the guard’s back, knocking him into the guard ahead.

All three rolled together down the stairs, landing in a balled heap beside Maxim’s limo.

“Wait!” Maxim whispered. He held Geoffrey back, watching.

Maxim’s men writhed below as the swarm arrived and struck into them on the street below.

“You said this worked on Henders Island,” Maxim said. “You were right, my friend!”

Geoffrey watched as the screaming men were bombarded by the voracious wave of glowing creatures. The mollusk manipulating the headless guard peeled off from his body as it was attacked, and it shot thick goo-ropes through the strange locusts that descended upon it. Animals the size of giant rats launched down the road and dived into the pile. Columns of white bugs streamed down the road, rolling toward the writhing heap with wide, long legs like shock absorbers, and flung themselves into the frenzy like discuses.

Maxim waved. “Come on!”

Geoffrey vomited as he saw him jump to the left side of the stairs and slide down the smooth surface, braking with his feet. In another instant, Geoffrey was following him, his heart pounding like an engine. The feeding animals raised an unholy din as they feasted on the street zooming toward them.

Maxim hit the street by the limo with Geoffrey landing right behind him. They darted away from the slaughter, around the front of the car, and opened the door on the far side, jumping in and slamming the door behind them.

“Go, Boris!”

The driver gunned the limo backwards over the pile of bodies. Then they pealed down the street, looking through the rearview mirror as glowing bugs splattered on the rear window. Illuminated by the headlights, two bodies ensnarled in the glue-ropes were still stuck to the vehicle. The creatures that had been heading for the feeding frenzy now turned and chased them in the other direction as they dragged the men’s corpses.

“Turn off the lights!” Geoffrey yelled. “And for God’s sake, don’t slow down!”

Maxim translated to Boris, who immediately complied.

The swarm chasing them only gathered. “Try to shake that off of us!” Geoffrey shouted. “We’re leading them on!”

Maxim fired a translation in real time at Boris, who wheelbarrowed down the road in reverse, swerving from side to side as he tried to tear away the grisly lure.

The stampede followed them, thinning as clusters stopped to feed on cast-off pieces of their bait and the road kill crushed under their run-flat tires. As they approached the warehouse where they had issued, a flow of creatures came at them from the front as well, spilling over the skyroof, until they finally reached the source and passed under the shattered window through which the cataract of creatures had sprung.

“They’re breeding in that warehouse,” Geoffrey said. “These things look like … God damn it, tell me I’m imagining things, Maxim!”

“You are imagining things,” Maxim repeated with shameful obedience.

Backing around the corner, the driver spun the limo, its tires chirping over the cobblestones, and he shifted into forward, accelerating down the final stretch.

“Have them close the hatch as soon as we get through,” Geoffrey said.

Maxim looked dazed.

“Maxim!” Geoffrey shouted angrily.

“Get us through, Boris!” Maxim pushed a button on his phone. “I will call ahead.”

“I need to see!” the driver shouted, switching on the headlights.

The road ahead was clear, but in the rearview mirror, Geoffrey saw that they were still dragging a stringer of body parts. A flying wedge of predators followed it. Farther back, a group of much larger animals appeared, moving over the others in giant leaps. “Get that off us!” Geoffrey screamed. “We’re still dragging bait! Get it the f*ck off us, Boris!”

The driver fishtailed the limo, and the rear tires finally tore away the sticky ropes. Geoffrey watched the horde descend on the train of carnage as it dropped behind them on the road. The limo squealed around the last corner and charged through the opened gate just as the guards were closing it.

Boris pulled the limo to a screeching stop in front of the hospital.

Miraculously, nothing appeared to have made it through the gate.

“Garage, Boris!” Maxim ordered, banging twice on the partition.

“Yes, boss.”

The car flew around the corner of the hospital to the right onto a side road. They turned right again down a driveway to the building’s basement. The driver pressed a remote attached to the visor, and a steel garage door opened. They drove in, and the driver closed the door behind them.

“What in the f*cking f*ck is going on?” Geoffrey yelled.

“Come with me, Geoffrey,” Maxim said grimly, opening the door.

“OK, but you tell me! What the hell is happening!” Geoffrey knew he didn’t want to know.

“Please,” Maxim said, stepping out.

Geoffrey climbed out tentatively as Boris ran up a stairway. Maxim followed, waving at Geoffrey to follow.

They mounted three flights of stairs to a hatch.

Waiting at the top of the stairs, Galia Sokolof greeted them and whispered in Maxim’s ear.

“Please, Geoffrey.” Maxim pointed to the hatch, his expression desolate but absolute. “In there, you will find answers. I need you to share everything that you know with your colleagues now. I’m sure you know how great the danger is and how urgent. I will join you, shortly.”

Galia opened the steel door solemnly and invited Geoffrey in, with an unequivocal nod. Geoffrey noticed all the other scientists inside, terror contorting their faces. He went inside as Galia closed the steel door behind him.