She cried out in pain but kept after him until he clubbed her with his fist, hitting her several times, then kicking her off balance until she fell. Swann turned back to the agent, feeling for her with his foot on the rocky floor. She tried to scrabble away from him but he had her now.
He knelt and lifted the knife.
There was a sound, more of a sense, of something rushing at him very fast, and Swann turned and lashed out wildly with the knife, trying to fend it off. The knife caught flesh, ripped, and he heard a grunt as the momentum of the thing took it roaring past him.
Swann snapped on his headlamp and saw Becker, who had raced several yards past, turn and blink at the light.
A gash of blood was welling up across his forehead. In the instant Swann also took in the woman agent who was lying beneath him, her arms crossed to ward off another blow, and Aural, also down, a few feet to one side.
For a second, everything seemed frozen in time, then Becker came up on all fours, snarling. Swann screamed and ran towards the tunnel.
In the receding light of Swann's headlamp, Becker knelt beside Pegeen, his hands searching for her wounds.
'Are you all right?' he asked.
'Get him,' Pegeen said.
Becker put a flashlight in her hand. Swann had reached the tunnel; the light all but disappeared as it burrowed into the long hole in the night.
'You'll need it,' Pegeen said, pushing the flashlight back.
'No, I won't,' Becker said and he rose and ran towards the point of light still coming from the tunnel. Pegeen followed him with her flashlight beam and saw him dive into the darkness of the rock before she turned the light back on herself and the young woman next to her.
Aural was sitting up and staring with amazement.
'Damn,' she said.
'Are you all right?' Pegeen asked, wondering at the same time if she was all right herself. She had been stabbed in the hip and the armpit, she realized, but neither blow would kill her.
'Honey,' Aural said, 'I ain't felt this good in weeks.
Who was that?'
'A federal agent.'
'Is he going to catch him?'
'Oh, yes,' Pegeen said. 'He'll catch him.'
'Will he kill him?'
Pegeen let the question hang although she thought the answer was yes.
'Sure looked like he was going to kill him,' Aural continued. 'Prettiest sight I ever saw.'
Pegeen hitched her way across the surface towards Aural, testing the extent of her injuries.
'You're all right. You're safe now,' Pegeen said.
Pegeen played the light down onto Aural's legs and gasped. Aural began to laugh and continued, unable to stop herself, and peal after peal of released hysteria echoed through the cavern.
Swann knew that Becker was behind him, but there was nothing he could do. The tunnel was too narrow to turn around; there was no way to bring the knife into play.
Every once in a while Becker would grab at Swann's foot and Swann would gasp and crawl with renewed panic.
Becker would laugh.
'Don't look back,' Becker taunted. 'Something's behind you.'
Swann would burst forward with increased effort, and then when he slowed again, giving in to exhaustion, Becker's voice would whisper at him again like a parent teasing a child. 'Going to… get you,' he would say, then touch Swann on the foot.
As Swann jerked forward desperately, Becker's laughter filled the tunnel, so loud Swann could feel it pressing on him.
When they finally emerged into the bat chamber, Swann stumbled towards the mat of guano, then turned, slashing with the knife, but Becker was standing well back, out of range of the weapon, mocking Swann's futile attempts with a cruel grin.
'Go %away!' Swann cried, his voice cracking with tears. 'Go away!'
Becker grinned, waiting.
Swann slashed the air again, lunging forward, and Becker glided away like a gymnast, at ease, enjoying the exercise.:'I'll kill you,' Swann said.
'Do you think so?' He sounded calm, genuinely interested. 'Or will I kill you?'
The blood from Becker's wound ran down the side of his face, giving his features a ghoulish cast in the yellow light of the lamp.
Swann didn't understand why Becker didn't attack. He could take away the knife in an instant, they both knew it.:'What do you want?' he demanded.
'There's no rush,' Becker said. 'It will all come clear to you in time.'
Swann realized then that Becker would kill him, wanted to kill him, and was savoring the anticipation.
'I surrender,' Swann said.
Becker only grinned and shook his head.
'I give up,' Swann insisted. He threw the knife into the guano.
'Not an option,' said Becker.
'you're an FBI agent. I give myself up to you. You have to take me into custody.'
Becker's eyes danced with pleasure. Swann began to whimper.
'What do you want?' he cried.
'What did you want, Swann? What did you come down here for?':'Please,' Swann begged. 'Please.' 'You said I had a reputation, remember? That's the reason you got in touch with me, that's the reason you pulled me into this in the first place. What did I have a reputation for, Swann?'
'They said you were-'
'What? They said I was what? Don't say 'fair,' nobody told you I was fair. What did they really say about me, Swann?'
'They said you were… worse.'
'Worse?'
'Worse than they were.'
'Worse than they were? Worse than the psychos like you? Well, if I were, they wouldn't be able to tell you, would they? They'd be dead.
But they weren't all dead, were they?'
Swann inched back towards the path through the guano.
'Were they?' Becker screamed. The bats roused at the noise and sent forth a squeal of their own. Several clumps and clusters broke loose from their roosts and swooped in panicked flight around the chamber before replanting themselves among the others.
Swann bent, cringing from the bats.
'No, they weren't all dead,' he whimpered, trying to placate Becker with his voice.
'No,' said Becker. 'I didn't kill all of them. Just some of them…
Some dead; some not dead… Which one are you, Swann?'
'Not dead. Not dead.'
'I warned you, Swann. I told you I never wanted to hear about you again … but here you are.' Becker grinned wolfishly. He spoke in a taunting singsong. 'Here we are together. Alone at last.'
Becker slowly turned his palms upward, flexing his fingers. 'Aren't you glad you brought me out of retirement?'
'Sweet Jesus,' Swann prayed. 'Put mercy in his heart.'
