The Chamber of Ten Read Online Free PDF Page A

Geena’s gaze settled on Nico. His expression was pale and twisted with fear, but not of the water. His eyes looked beyond those ancient walls, perhaps lingering in the vision they’d just shared, wondering whose eyes he had been looking through.
    Then someone grabbed her shoulder and pulled, and the room erupted into chaos.
    A voice shouted in Italian, so fast that she lost track of what it was saying. Something about
steps
and
cold
and
black
, but she could not place the words in order or context. Water washed around her feet and splashed up at her ankles and shins, cold and thick with slime. The chamber filled with the rumble of tumbled stones and the roar of gushing water. The shouts and cries of her friends echoed strangely around the round room.
    “Dr. Hodge!” Ramus shouted, grabbing her shoulder again, but she tore herself away to focus on Nico.
    What’s he seeing?
she thought, and then she saw Nico turn and trip over something on the floor. She grimaced against the flash of sensation she expected from him—
    Pain, that must have hurt, and I’m sure I heard him cry out
.
    —but none came. Nico was on his hands and knees, feeling around under the rapidly rising water as if he’d lost something valuable.
    “Nico!” Domenic shouted, hauling at the old wooden door with the X stamped on the metal bracings. “Geena! All of you, come here and
help!”
He pulled harder, but the water was up to their knees now and rising quickly. It was not only the weight of the water against the door that kept it closed, but the force of the flow. Finch went to help, grabbing the wooden jamb and prizing at the door.
    Geena thought of all the submarine suspense films she’d ever seen, every one of which featured a scene when a heroic submariner would sacrifice himself to save the rest of the crew. She let out a burst of terrified laughter, and Ramus grabbed her arm and hauled her toward the door.
    “Nico!” she shouted.
    He was still scrabbling about on the floor, dipping his head under the rising flood again and again. The water carried a rich, oily chemical smell, and beneath that was the rank odor of sewage. The darting flashlights could not pick out color, but she knew the waters would be almost black with filth and shit. “Nico, come
on
!”
    He surfaced at last, standing, backing against one of the three central columns for support. He had something in his hands, a thick substance that slipped slowly through his fingers.
He’s gone insane
, she thought briefly, opening her mind and urging him to touch her. But there was nothing there at all—no excitement or fear, no joy or confusion.
    “Nico,” she said, so quietly this time that she couldhardly hear her own voice above the roar of water. He looked up and met her eyes, but he did not see her.
    A higher, larger section of the curved wall fell, and the flow of water became a torrent.
    “Help us!” someone screamed. As Geena turned she saw Domenic prop one foot against the wall and pull against the door. Finch helped, and Ramus, and old timbers crumbled and split. The door disintegrated, metal bracings dipping into the water, and Sabrina and her camera were ushered through first.
    Ramus went next, standing with his back against the curving staircase wall and helping Finch after him. The producer disappeared, his jerky shadow thrown back by Sabrina’s camera light.
    Geena was leaning against the flow of water now, feeling almost solid things grabbing at her thighs, trying to pull her down.
Just the rush of water
, she thought, and she cursed her imagination as she felt long fingers, curved nails …
    “Geena!” Domenic shouted from the open doorway. He was two or three steps up and leaning into the room, and seeing him there made her realize how high the water had already risen. She jumped for him and grabbed his hand, then tripped on something she was sure had not been there before. She’d lived in Venice for long enough to know to squeeze her mouth shut, not cry