The Mongol Objective by David Sakmyster Read Free Book Online

side.
     
     
    “Why are you—Oh! Wait.” Alexander looked at the left wall, then back to the right. Then back to the door, pointing to the letters. He blinked, the room’s colors shifted, and for a moment, he saw it. In his mind he saw lines of light stretching from the letters to the shelves: the above left letter, Theta, with a line angled down, concurrently with the bottom shelf on the right wall; the above right letter, Delta, highlighting a trail to the bottom shelf on the left wall. Then the lower letters doing the reverse.
    “But what about the ones in the center?”
    Montross turned to him, smiling. “Ah, welcome aboard. You’re close now. So close. See, isn’t it great figuring things out intuitively?” He set the last peg in place. “Course, it helps if you can cheat. Although, eight years of trying to remote view this thing I’d hardly call an easy cheat.”
    “But the middle ones!” Forgetting all about the danger, Alexander ran to Montross. “I get it. Above and Below are maintained, but in the whole system, the whole room, not just the letters at the door. The Delta letter, top right, lines up with the bottom left shelf, so that’s why you put the peg in the . . . Hold on! The seventh hole?”
    “Egyptian, boy. Think like an Egyptian. They wrote—”
    “Right to left!” Alexander smacked his own head. “I would’ve gotten myself killed.”
    “You can thank me later.”
    “It’s the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, so the peg goes in the fourth hole from the right.” Alexander moved closer, looking in the dim light. “And the top shelf on the left, matches up with the letter Theta on the right-most letter on the floor. The eighth letter in the alphabet, so you’ve got it.” He counted off the peg holes. “Eight holes from the right.”
    “Yeah, okay, you’ve got it, kid. And I did the same on the right wall. Omega for the first hole and Theta again for the eighth.” Montross approached the door, smoothing his sweaty hands on his pants as he reached for the great bronze handle.
    “But the center ones, I don’t understand those. Omega on the top . . . Why’d you match that up to the right wall, and Delta went to the left? I don’t see any signs, anything that could—
    Montross stopped, hand inches from the door.
    “Oh no,” Alexander said, looking at the back of Montross’s head. “You don’t know, do you?”
    “You should go back up the stairs, Alexander. In case I’m wrong.”
    “You guessed?”
    Montross gave him a steady look. “I guessed.” He turned his head slightly just as his hand settled on the handle. “I spent months trying to view which way was correct, but I never saw it, never asked the right questions, maybe. But what I do know is that I saw myself—visions of myself—after this moment. So I know, I just know whatever I choose, it won’t get me killed.”
    Alexander frowned, taking a step back. “That’s a little sketchy. Thought you said not to trust Fate, or your visions.”
    “Touché. Call it a hunch, then. I trust those. But as I said, get on upstairs if you don’t believe me and don’t want to risk being squished flat or sliced into cubes. But I’m going in or dying a horrible death, with or without you.”
    Alexander frowned, looking again at the letters above the door, then at the position of the pegs. He sighed, then stepped closer, right behind Montross.
    “So you believe me?”
    “It was a good hunch,” Alexander said, pointing. “The only one where you wind up with both Deltas on one side and both Omegas on the other. So if you orient the room on its side instead, you’d have the same arrangement. One Theta on top and bottom, and then two like symbols. It’s the only way that works.”
    Montross smiled and rubbed his hands together. “See, you figured it out after all. Now, let’s go. Do you want to do the honors, or shall I?”
     
    5.
    “No broken bones, just two sprained ribs and some nasty bruises. And some