The Combination by Elias Carr

Author:Elias Carr
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780761379522
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

13

“As it turns out, it wasn’t chance that brought one of Europe’s great architects to Bridgewater to build a high school,” Spangler said. “It was geology.”

“Rocks for jocks. Admissions counselors see right through that on a transcript.”

“Shut up, Vincent!” Miranda hissed.

“As I was saying, it was geology that brought Shandor here. Specifically, a sinkhole that appeared in Bridgewater the year before Shandor dropped everything to come here and build a school. As I’m sure a future Ivy Leaguer must know, a sinkhole occurs when the stone underlying the surface suddenly collapses, creating a hole seemingly out of nowhere. The hole itself can be only a few meters deep. Or it can be thousands of meters.”

“Let me guess,” said Dante. “The one in Bridgewater is really deep.” The pieces of the puzzle were coming together.

“Correct,” said Spangler. “I believe it may be the deepest in North America, perhaps the world.”

“But wait, I’ve never heard of a sinkhole in Bridgewater—”

“Is it—”

Miranda and Dante both started to talk at once and then both stopped to apologize to each other.

“No one has seen the Bridgewater sinkhole for a little more than a hundred years. Shandor arrived here shortly after it opened and within days had charmed the city officials into allowing him to donate his services as an architect for any building they wanted, as long as he could build it over the sinkhole and have complete control over the materials.”

“But why would he want to build a school over a huge hole in the ground?” Vincent asked.

“He didn’t care about the school. He would have built a roller rink if they’d asked him to. What the people of Bridgewater wanted the building for didn’t matter. Shandor believed it would eventually serve a much darker purpose.”

“Spit it out,” exclaimed Dante.

“Shandor’s specialty as an architect was entryways—grand doorways, entrance halls, gates, and the like. It’s my belief that this school is an entryway of sorts. Though it’s not really a front door—more of a trapdoor. A trapdoor over h—”

The building rocked and seemed to tilt steeply before righting itself.

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