Inspector Korr Var and Eren Tal dropped twenty steps down the spiral stairs, stopping at the landing of Sub-Cellar 3 where the stone walls met the ancient foundation cut stone. Eren laid the flat of his palm against the dressed limestone block. He pulled his hand back instantly, as if he had touched a red-hot stove grate.
“The stone is buzzing,” Eren said, his voice dropping into a harsh, hollow whisper. “It feels like an iron bandsaw cutting through dry hickory. The shaking is so fast you can’t see it with the eye. But the mortar between these blocks is turning into fine gray sand.” He scraped his thumbnail along the bedding joint. A stream of powdery dry lime poured out onto his boots like salt from an open shaker.
“Sorell’s override has reached deep ringing hum with the bedrock,” Korr Var said grimly, adjusting his glasses. “The Hollow Crown is spinning at four hundred revolutions a minute up on that platform. The shaking is traveling straight down the steel support columns into this limestone stratum. The rock is delaminating along its sedimentary planes.”
“If Pella stands in that nook to uncouple Senn’s knot,” Eren said, looking down into the dark stairwell, “the shock wave will pass through her body like a lightning bolt. Her heart wouldn’t take ten seconds of that hum. She’d drop dead on the flat stone slabs before she could touch the copper wire.” Korr turned on his heel, his jaw setting hard. “Then she doesn’t…
