While the parlay between the living and the dead continued, the offbeat, off-kilter officious offender of<em>something</em>had, with what appeared to be a lack of affectation, maneuvered through the death maze using cunning.  He had swung on the guillotines like they were swings, bounded up and over and then under the spiked rolling pins, used the grease of the ramp to wedge through tight spots, all while avoiding flying needles, balls of fire and strikes of lightning.  It was all the better that Kasumi had no knowledge of what was going through his mind, since it was working, and the toil of that clever brain was oftentimes too much for others to handle.  It must have resembled Mark's mind, as it calculated mathematical equations, devising trajectories by conjuring algorithms that measured the angle of hypotenuses.  Opportunities that did not present themselves were created.<br/><br/>At last, the young man found himself standing alone in the room at the end of the ramp.  He searched himself, and sorely desired a steel pipe or a solid wooden club.  He felt that he was going to need it.<br/><br/>