Showdown by Ted Dekker Read Free Book Online

the volume out and flipped it open. Old English.
    â€œHuh.”
    He smiled and blew along the spines. Dust puffed into the air. They were all old titles he’d never heard of before. Except one: Moby Dick by Melville. He backed to the center of the room and turned in a circle. Fascinating. Even more than the room of art and theater, this study seemed to glow with mystery and magic.
    Why was this place forbidden? Because evil resided here? According to whom? It seemed to him that the director himself would encourage the students to explore these magical halls. What harm was there in a little milky worm sludge?
    It occurred to Billy then, standing in the middle of the small study below the monastery’s foundation, that he had to bring someone else down here.
    Billy turned to the desk and approached its tall, wooden chair. Several dust-covered books lay on one side, similar to the book he found last night on the desk outside the tunnels. That one was blank. Probably journals. The quill and inkwell looked surprisingly fresh.
    He set his torch in an iron sconce and sat on the sofa.
    This was a place of mold and moss and dripping water and massive worms. It was a heaven of mystery and books and art and . . . well, he couldn’t describe it exactly, but he could feel it.
    Billy laid his head back and smiled. He could sit here in dumb pleasure for the rest of his life.
    ANDREW
JACKMAN hurried down the dim hall, panting from the climb up through the monastery’s innumerable stairs. Flames licked at the rock walls on both sides, one torch every twenty feet. Parts of the monastery were powered by electricity, but they wasted their precious light in none of the halls. An electric light bulb was far less expensive to keep lit than an oil torch, but that would mean upgrading the monastery, and upgrading wasn’t a priority for David. Besides, it increased their risk of exposure.
    David Abraham would never risk exposure. The number of people who knew of this mountain’s secret could be counted on one page, and all went to great lengths to keep it that way. The fact that the large monastery was carved out of a wedge-shaped canyon no more than twenty meters wide at the top aided them in keeping its existence unnoticed, but even the best camouflage had its flaws. The school could be found, if one knew where to look.
    Today the risk of their discovery had grown. No, not only of being found. Worse.
    Andrew rounded a corner, hefted his robe with one hand to give his feet more room, and broke into a run.
    He always knew that the project could fail, yes, but he’d given a dozen years of his life to the hope that it wouldn’t.Now, the entire project teetered on the precipice of failure.
    Why? Because one boy had defied them all.
    He reached the tall door that led to the director’s study and banged hard.
    â€œDavid!”
    â€œCome.”
    He shoved the handle down and pushed the door in. Light streamed in from the large windows that faced the west, out of the canyon. David Abraham looked up from his large ironwood desk. A ten-by-ten-foot map of the world made of pearl and jade was built into the wall adjacent the long row of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Leather and clothbound books only. A large crystal chandelier hung over a thick cross section cut from a redwood. Eight leather chairs surrounded it.
    â€œWe have a problem,” Andrew said.
    The director leaned back in his chair and tapped his hand with his pencil. “And what would that be?”
    How should he say this? David might be unshakable, but Andrew had little doubt the news would send an earthquake through his bones.
    â€œBilly’s entered the dungeons.”
    David stared at him.
    Andrew walked in. “He’s down there now.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    â€œHe entered the staircase two hours ago and he hasn’t emerged.”
    â€œThat doesn’t necessarily mean he’s entered the tunnels.”
    â€œOf