There was a half moon in the sky that cast a pale glow upon the trees, rocks and shrubs around. ‘Let’s go.’ Vijay strode purposefully towards the hill. He pulled out a portable lamp from his bag. A powerful beam of light swept up the hillside, cutting through the darkness and illuminating the cobbled path. He beckoned to the others, ‘Let’s see what the Nine hid out here.’ They climbed up to where they had seen the cog wheel earlier in the day. ‘Okay, so where’s the trapdoor?’ Vijay looked at Colin. Colin produced the metal slab with the gearwheel. ‘Okay, this is how I see it. This is the only shape that isn’t a circle, square or rectangle. It is a parallelogram. Why? All the structures here with straight lines as edges have only right angles. No parallelograms. The only thing I can think of that would justify the parallelogram is that the trapdoor is located at a different elevation than the cog wheel.’ Understanding dawned on Vijay. He swung the beam of light to illuminate the raised platform on the small landing that lay between the two larger terraces.
