else into motion. “‘Arise, O Lord, and judge your cause,’” Shaun translated. “The motto of the Spanish Inquisition.”
“I knew it,” Neela said under her breath.
Riot continued to read. “Then in the middle, it says Psalm Seventy-Three. Any chance you know that one, Shaun-bot?”
“One of the Wisdom Psalms, also known as the Psalms of Asaph.” Shaun cleared his throat, eager to show off. If he’d felt any fear or remorse in the face of Arlo’s death, it had quickly been forgotten. “‘Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity, their evil imaginations have no limits.’”
“I really shouldn’t be surprised that Shaun-bot can quote the Bible,” Kevin said, “but somehow I am.”
“Bible cryptography, also known as a Bible cipher, is one of the earliest known means of encoded messaging in the Western world.” Shaun sounded even more like a computer reading an encyclopedia entry out loud. “It’s relatively common for cryptographers to have more than a working knowledge of its verses.”
Wes clapped him on the shoulder. A weirdly intimate gesture from the guy who had treated them all like enemies from the beginning. “I knew your Catholic schooling would come in handy.”
“Don’t touch me,” Shaun said coldly.
“I didn’t know you were into Bible code,” Riot said, nodding his head as if discovering a newfound appreciation for the Shaun-bot. “Did you know the King James version predicted the 1906 San Francisco earthquake?”
“Bible cipher,” Shaun sighed wearily. “Bible code is for charlatans and idiots. There are no scientific facts to back up a single fake prediction.”
“Yeah, that’s what they want you to think.”
A distant rumbling interrupted the conversation. It sounded like thunder, and Persey could feel the reverberations beneath her feet. “Is there a storm outside?”
“No,” Neela said. She pressed her palms flat against the floor. “That’s coming from below us.”
Kevin gasped in mock fear. “The call! It’s coming from inside the house!”
Persey was amazed by how easily distracted they all were. “The floor is shaking. Can you feel that?”
“Probably just the construction,” Kevin said. “I doubt these wooden slabs are very thick. Maybe they’re mounted on scaffolding or something. That would explain…” He swung his arms forward, launching his butt and legs off the floor for a moment. When he landed, the floor jiggled. “The bouncy room.”
“Seems safe,” Wes said, sarcasm dripping from each word.
“One more reason to get the fuck out of here,” Riot said. “Anything else in that psalm that might help us?”
“Let me think.” Shaun placed a hand over his eyes, while he accessed his memory banks.
Persey wasn’t Catholic, hadn’t gone to Catholic school, so as she watched Shaun silently mouth the verses of the psalm, she was amazed by its length. The Bible must be wordy.
“‘Those who are far from you will perish,’” Shaun said at last. “‘You will destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.’”
Mackenzie stared at Shaun as if he’d just spoken one of the many languages she didn’t know. “How does that help us?”
“That’s the ending,” Shaun said, dropping his hand from his eyes. “It’s the crux of the verse.”
“Destroy all who are unfaithful?” Neela hugged her knees tighter to her chest. “What the Helvetica does that mean?”
Persey wasn’t really sure, but she didn’t like it.
“Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?” Wes asked, unbuttoning his flannel shirt.
As much as Persey wanted to disagree with just about everything Wes had to say, as she sat beside Neela, she felt sweat on the back of her neck, and her palms were damp. She swept her hand across the floor, and when it passed over one of the seams between the wooden “stones,” she felt a jet of hot air against her palm.
“It’s hot,” she said, scrambling to her feet.
One by one, each of her fellow contestants dropped to the ground, testing the temperature of the air wafting up between the floorboards.
“Well, that’s not good,” Kevin said.
Shaun also tested the stone walls, pressing his palms against it in several different places. “Walls are still cool. Heat must be coming from below.”
“From hell,” Mackenzie said.
“You’re not wrong.” Riot, from his position on top of the altar, was staring at something in the back of the Cavethedral, eyes so wide Persey could see the torch flames dancing in them. Emblazoned