The base of the Black Pyramid wasn't made of stone. As they drew closer, Amina realized it was made of millions of tiny, interlocking obsidian gears, all grinding against each other with a sound like a thousand teeth chattering. It was a machine of architectural scale, designed to chew through reality.
"Wait," Tunde whispered, pulling Amina behind a pillar of jagged glass. "There's a guard patrol at the main archway. But they aren't Seekers."
Amina peered out. Standing at the entrance were men in tactical gear the same gear she had seen on Okoro's men in Ikeja. But these men were standing perfectly still, their eyes replaced by hollow, glowing violet pits.
"The Bureau," Amina gasped. "The Seekers didn't just bypass them. They took them."
"Not all of us, Mrs. Amina."
A man stepped out from the shadows of the gear-wall. He was wearing a grease-stained overall, the same one worn by the staff at the Nigerian Bottling Company in Agidingbi. He was holding a heavy wrench that glowed with a dull, pulsating orange light.
"Mr. Kola?" Tunde blurted out, his jaw dropping. "The Floor Manager?"
The man offered a grim, toothy smile. Kola was the man who had threatened to fire Tunde three times last month for being late. Now, he looked like a guerrilla fighter from a different dimension.
"In Lagos, I manage the conveyor belt," Kola said, his voice echoing with a hidden power. "But here, I am the Keeper of the Iron Flame. I was sent to the 'Real World' twenty years ago to protect the Star-Core. I didn't know the Core was sitting right under my nose, complaining about his shift hours."
"You knew?" Tunde asked, a spark of anger hitting his voice. "You watched us struggle? You watched my wife cry over bills when you could have helped?"
Kola looked at the ground. "To help you was to reveal you, Tunde. The Void-Seekers hunt by scent. If I had given you wealth or power, the smell of your soul would have lit up Mowe like a flare. I had to keep you miserable to keep you alive. Hardship is the best mask for a King."
Amina stepped forward. "Why are you here now, Kola?"
"Because the Bureau has fallen," Kola said, his expression hardening. He pointed the glowing wrench toward the top of the Pyramid. "The King of the Void has taken the Director. They are using the Director's knowledge of Nigeria's energy grid to synchronize the Void-Engine. If they succeed, the Pyramid won't just stay here. It will manifest physically in the center of the Lagos Lagoon."
"If that thing appears in Lagos..." Tunde began.
"It will act like a black hole," Kola finished. "It will pull every soul within the city limits into the Engine to power the bridge to the next world. Lagos will be a ghost town by sunrise."
Kola handed Tunde a small, heavy crystal. "This is a 'Kill-Key.' It was forged by the Alchemists who built this place before the corruption. If you can get this to the central gear-chamber, it will reverse the rotation. The Pyramid will tear itself apart."
"And the King?" Amina asked.
"He'll be waiting for you," Kola said. "He knows Tunde has the Core. He'll try to bargain. He'll offer you a world where you never have to worry about money again. A world where Mowe is a paradise."
Tunde took the crystal, his obsidian armor flaring once. He looked at Amina, then back at his old boss.
"I just want my home back. And I want my door fixed."