Labyrinth by Alex Archer

concerns and no way to validate them with anyone. It was really frustrating.
She walked down the length of the corridor and, right before the corner, she stopped, sank to the stone floor and then poked her head around.
Another corridor exactly like the one she’d just walked down. Annja counted the number of torches and then looked behind her and counted again.
Same number, she concluded.
She glanced ahead and made a note of the color of some of the stones. Then she looked back.
The same.
Annja frowned. So now she was walking down corridors that were exactly alike? What was the point of that?
Disorientation.
Fairclough was deliberately attempting to disorient anyone who might have gotten into his maze.
But to what end? What would that prove?
Annja took a deep breath.
And then started down the new corridor.

Chapter 14
     
If Fairclough’s goal had been to disorient those in the maze by replicating the corridors, he was succeeding. As Annja stole down the second corridor, she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by a sense of déjà vu. Her body wanted her to realize it was lost and she had to fight the instinct to stop and regroup.
Keep going. This is all part of Fairclough’s plan to ensure his book was safe.
The torchlight flickered as she walked past. And then she thought she heard something farther ahead.
At another corner, Annja took time to stop and listen before peering around it. As she did this time, she saw a shadow disappear around yet another bend.
Should she yell out?
What if it wasn’t Kessel?
True, she had the sword. She could probably easily dispatch anything that attacked her. But what sort of beast could Fairclough have kept down here that could survive for long periods of time? How was it fed and cared for? By whoever managed a control center? Wasn’t that kind of employee a risk to the security of the maze—a vulnerable weakness that put the book at risk?
And why hadn’t Annja seen or heard anything of the wild dogs in a while?
There’s simply too much going on here that I don’t have a clue about, she thought to herself.
She rounded the corner and then ducked back as her ears picked up the telltale twang of something being shot out of a hole. As Annja dropped to the floor, several metal star-shaped blades zipped over her head. They bounced off the rear wall and skittered away.
Annja picked up one of them. A senban shuriken, like the kind she’d once seen used in Japan. But that was years ago. And why would Fairclough have these in his possession? Yeah, he could get them anywhere, but the design seemed unique to the warrior family Annja had come to know well on her trip to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Weird.
She put one of the throwing stars in her pocket and kept walking. As she got to the end of the corridor, she peered down a new hallway.
And saw nothing but a brick wall.
Huh?
The corridor ended just as quickly as it began: a dead end.
But she’d seen a shadow pass down here. And more importantly, Kessel would have had to come this way. So where was he if he’d run into this same obstacle?
These puzzles were getting to be a pain in the ass and she was ready for them to be over. A quick glance at her watch told her that five hours had now passed. She winced.
The longer she stayed underground, the easier it was to get so absorbed in the bizarre happenings down here that the real world seemed a distant memory.
And that was probably what Fairclough was counting on. If someone got trapped, they could wander for weeks and not find their way around or back to safety. They’d die of starvation.
Unless the dogs got to them first.
Or something else.
Annja approached the brick wall and pressed against it, but it was solid. There was even a torch in a sconce on the wall itself. Annja reached up and passed her hand over the flame, making sure it wasn’t some high-tech illusion. But she felt the warmth of the fire and the bite of the flames. It was real enough.
And so was the wall, she decided.
She