The stacks of books stretched out before them in the dark, monumental space.
‘This is the wing of the Vatican library that holds their rare and forbidden books,’ Gabriella said as they sped down a wrought-iron spiral staircase.
Sam tripped on the last step and fell flat on his face. Don’t remember this part from my dream. He hastily got to his feet and brushed himself off.
‘How did you even recognise this place?’ Sam asked in wonder. Who is this girl?
‘Being famous has its advantages,’ Gabriella smiled. Then, in response to Sam’s puzzled face, she added, ‘So I like books! It’s not a crime, no? Come on, this way,’ she said, pausing at a few junctions before deciding on a direction.
‘Are you sure you know where you’re going?’ Sam asked.
‘I dreamed it, didn’t I? I think it’s this way,’ she said. They passed down rows and rows of shelves, each looking the same. Gradually, her sense of direction was becoming muddled and they stopped. Endless shelves of books stretched out in every direction.
‘It has to be here!’ she shouted.
‘Stay calm, we’ll find it together,’ Sam whispered. He gently took her hand in his but she pulled away.
‘We’re close, I know it. We must keep looking,’ she said.
They kept running through the dark warren, as if trapped in a silent, book-lined maze. A growing feeling of frustration threatened to overtake Sam’s clear head as he frantically searched for something familiar.
Gabriella skidded to a stop and Sam bumped into her.
‘What are you doing?’ Sam whispered.
‘That’s it!’ she said. ‘The book I saw in my dream!’
Gabriella looked at a book in a display cabinet. Sam shone the flashlight of his phone onto it. He looked around the case for locks or an access door—nothing.
‘We’ll have to break it. It’s why we came here,’ Gabriella said as she smashed the glass with Sam’s phone and lifted out the book within. It had thick yellowed pages and black leather binding, and the Roman numerals XII on the cover. ‘I had this book with me in the piazza …’ Gabriella seemed lost as she struggled to replay her dream. ‘I’m sure I know it.’
‘Any place but here sounds good to me,’ Sam replied, putting the book in his backpack. ‘Let’s go.’
They ran around the next corner—
‘Argh!’ Sam screamed.
The man in black from their dreams stood before them. This time Sam noticed the little white square at the front of his collar—he’s a priest!
Gabriella said something apologetic to him as he protested, telling them off in Italian. But then Gabriella talked to him again, her tone soothing and calm, and he slowly nodded and replied, pointing down the corridor of bookcases from where he’d come.
‘What on earth did you say?’ Sam whispered, smiling at the priest in what he hoped was a winning way.
‘I told him to trust me,’ she said. ‘That us being here is destiny.’
‘Wow. And what did he say?’ Sam asked.
‘To take the next two rights, go all the way to the end and turn left, and there we’ll find a secret doorway that leads to a grotto,’ Gabriella said. ‘And that he will try to delay them.’
They heard the sound of many feet, running their way. The Agents …
The priest disappeared around a corner, quickly followed by crashing noises as shelves of books were tipped over.
Sam began to run, but then Gabriella stopped in front of him at the first right. The way ahead was in near darkness.
Sam pulled her onwards, and they came to the second right-hand turn, fumbling their way onwards in the gloom—
THWACK!
A dart hit the tall timber bookcase right where his head had just been. Sam tugged at the nearest bookcase to bring it down, but it wouldn’t budge. He heaved and shoved, and Gabriella helped, and they just began to get it moving when—
WRANG!
A net wrapped around the shelf just as it started to tumble, long steel spikes snapping it taut by biting into the timber and books.
Sam was stuck, his right arm trapped under the net.
‘Go!’ Sam said, crouching on the floor, struggling to free his arm from the tight net strings. He could see them now, four Enterprise Agents, running towards them.
Gabriella pulled at his other arm. ‘Not without you!’
‘Go!’
‘No!’
The lead Agent pulled up a weapon to fire—
Time seemed to slow for Sam, as he tore free from the net—his jacket sleeve remaining behind—and he wriggled behind the fallen bookcase, following Gabriella into the darkness beyond.
They stood at the dead-end wall of books.
‘The book spines—we must find the secret doorway!’ Gabriella whispered.
Sam watched as she frantically pulled at several books then quickly followed suit.
‘I can’t remember the title!’ she said, panicking.
They could hear the commotion of Agents running in the maze of book stacks, closer every second.
‘Slow down, try to visualise it from your dream, what colour did you see?’ he said.
‘It—was blue!’ she said with sudden clarity. ‘The spine was blue!’
‘Dozens of them are blue,’ Sam said, grabbing at spines.
‘It was at eye level,’ she said, ‘somewhere around here—’
CRACK!
The book under her fingers tipped outward and released a latch. The sound of hinges creaking echoed as a door started to open.
WHACK!
A dart thumped into Sam’s backpack. Without a word he grabbed Gabriella.
The wall-sized bookcase with its hundreds of books opened just enough, and amidst the overwhelming noise and dust and commotion, they disappeared behind it.
Their footsteps echoed loudly as they sprinted down the dusty, fetid corridor, both of them wincing at each loud stomp they made, the way ahead lit only by the light on Sam’s phone. Cobwebs tangled in their hair as they ran down a smooth cobbled ramp. They skidded to a stop as they came out into a damp, dark cavern but the momentum was carrying them too fast. They fell feet first into the swirling lake below. The water was so cold that Gabriella shrieked as she broke the surface. Sam gasped and coughed in the icy water, pulling her to the nearest of three gondolas that bobbed gently at the stone pier beside them.
‘We don’t have long,’ Sam said, dragging himself aboard after her. ‘Come on!’
Sam pushed off—
The lights of the Agents’ flashlights could be seen in the tunnel behind them.
Sam heaved with the long oar, pushing them off. It was agonisingly slow to get moving.
‘Paddle with your hands!’ he told Gabriella, and she sat up the front and started to pull her shaking hands through the cold water.
There were noises back at the pier. Without warning, the sprinting figure of an Agent launched off the sandstone pier, arms outstretched towards them. He splashed into the water behind, just missing landing in the gondola, but with his hands holding tightly to the back to the boat.
Sam pulled the oar from the water and used it to prise the Agent off the wooden edge of the boat.
WHACK!
A dart embedded into the oar, right between Sam’s eyes.
‘Get down!’ Sam yelled to Gabriella, tossing the oar into the gondola and diving down. The two of them reached over the sides and paddled as fast as they could, while the Agent in the water was swimming hard to catch up, trying again to climb into their boat.
This time Gabriella forced him off with a couple of swift kicks.
Sam paddled as fast as he could, an arm scooping each side of the gondola, the tunnel ahead nearing. He looked over his shoulder.
An Agent raised his reloaded net gun—
WHOOSH!
The Agent in the water pulled himself back onto the boat just as the net hit and wrapped around him, yanking him back into the dark water and tearing off a chunk of the gondola’s timber siding.
‘Quick!’ Gabriella cried. ‘Now’s our chance to get away!’
Sam threw his weight into leveraging the oar, their momentum in the water now fast enough for it to be useful to keep propelling them.
They approached the tunnel entrances—there were two to choose from. They had gone right in his dream …
‘Gabriella, which tunnel?’
‘The priest told me to go right. It’s the fastest way out.’
Sam looked at her apprehensively. Solaris flashed through his mind. He’s not here so maybe we’ve already outrun the dream? But still …
‘So, left then?’
She nodded and they entered the left tunnel. So far so—
Noises behind.
The Agent reloaded his net-gun.
‘Down!’
SPLASH!
A net landed violently in the water behind them, the gondola tilting wildly in its wake. Sam pushed on. They were further into the tunnel this time, compared to his dream. Maybe we’re in the clear …
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
Darts bored into the gondola, splinters of wood flying through the air.
Gabriella screamed.
Sam pushed as hard and fast as he could with the oar, as he saw Agents boarding a gondola, and then—
Another fast-flying net, this time hitting the top of the tunnel, taking out a cracked support beam in the ceiling. Sam pushed frantically into the black water with the oar, trying desperately to increase the speed of the antiquated vessel. Gabriella was looking directly at Sam, her eyes wide with fear. Overhead he could hear the ominous rumbling and tumbling of the stones as the tunnel collapsed around them.