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place to hide so far.'

'Fine by me,' Hawkins said.

Swain began dragging Balthazar away from the railing, with Holly by his side and Hawkins, Selexin and Balthazar's guide in front. They all headed for the open, darkened elevator.

And then it happened.

The elevator's doors began to close.

Swain shot a look at Hawkins, who immediately dashed forward, trying to get to the doors in time. But the doors joined just as he got there.

'Damn it!' he cursed.

Swain came up beside him, looked up at the numbered display above the elevator doors. The illuminated number was moving down the line from l to G and then to SL-1.

'The elevator...' he whispered.

'Jesus Christ,' Hawkins said, realising, 'they figured out how to use the goddamn elevator.'

'They're intelligent--' Selexin said.

'They're animals, for God's sake,' Hawkins said, perhaps a little too loudly.

'Alien, yes. Animal, no,' Selexin whispered. 'I would say understanding a contraption like your elevator would be regarded as remarkably intelligent.'

Hawkins was about to say something in retort when Swain cut in, 'All right. It doesn't matter. We'll find somewhere else to...'

'Hey Daddy, don't be silly,' Holly said, standing next to the elevator call button. 'I can get the elevator back for you.'

Swain's eyes went wide with horror.

'Holly, no!' He lunged to stop her, but it, was too late.

Holly pressed the UP button.

Swain closed his eyes and bowed his head. The round UP button glowed brightly in the darkness of the First Floor.

He couldn't believe it. Now, whoever was using the lift wouldn't even have to guess which floor they were on. Nor would they even have to figure out how to use the elevator. Because now that Holly had pressed the call button, once the elevator picked up its new passenger, it would automatically stop here, on the First Floor'.

Holly said, 'What did I do? Didn't I do the right thing, Daddy?'

Swain sighed, 'Yes. Thank you, honey. You did the right thing.' He handed Balthazar over to Hawkins, and walked quietly back to the balcony overlooking the atrium.

Bellos was still standing behind the Information Desk, putting down his guide, oblivious to their presence.

At least that's good, Swain turned back toward the elevator, head down in thought. They still had to go. Something would be coming up in that elevator very soon and he didn't want to be here when it did.

Finally he looked up toward the elevator.

Holly was staring straight at him.

Selexin and the other guide both stood there with their mouths wide open.

Hawkins was just standing there, too, propping up Balthazar, staring fixedly at Swain.

But it was Balthazar who seized Swain's attention.

The tall bearded man had his left arm draped over Hawkins' shoulder for support. His right was held high, a glistening, evil-looking silver blade in his hand.

Poised.

Ready.

Swain didn't know what to do. What had happened? Balthazar was ready to throw a knife at him and the others weren't doing anything...

Balthazar threw the knife.

Swain waited for the impact. Waited to grab his chest and feel the burning pain as the blade lodged deep into his heart...

The knife whistled through the air at astonishing speed.

Right past him.

Swain heard a thud as the nasty-looking knife lodged into the railing behind him. The steel railing.

Then Swain heard the scream.

A piercing, wailing scream of pure agony.

Swain spun to see that Balthazar's knife had pinned the hood's left foreclaw to the steel railing. The force of the throw was so strong that it had lodged the knife several inches into the steel. It had caught the hood as it had been attempting to climb over the railing from the Ground Floor below -- right behind Swain.

The hood screamed, and for an instant Swain saw its features up close. Four muscular black limbs, all with long dagger-like claws; a long slashing tail; and strangest of all, the head. It seemed as if the head of this dog-sized animal was nothing more than two gigantic jaws. There were eyes on it somewhere, but all Swain could see were its needle-like teeth, bared wide with the help of its massive lower jaw.

And beyond the hood, Swain caught a glimpse -- a split-second glimpse -- of Bellos, standing by the Information Desk.

Gazing up at him.

Smiling.

He had known all along...

Swain turned away, stumbling away from the railing as the hood wrenched at its pinned foreclaw. It seemed to Swain that the knife fixing the claw to the railing was the only thing holding the hood up.

At that moment there was another whistling through the air and suddenly a second knife thudded into the forearm of the hood, slicing right through the narrow bone just above its pinned foreclaw, cutting the claw clean off.

With a shriek, the hood dropped instantly out of sight, falling to the atrium way below -- leaving in its place a bony five-fingered claw, impaled on the railing by the first throwing knife.

Hawkins yelled to Swain, 'Here! Over here!'

Swain saw the ramshackle group hurrying toward the photocopying room to his right. He ran after them and when he reached the door to the photocopying room, he looked back over his shoulder to see the first of the remaining hoods slink slowly and menacingly over the railing.

Swain shut the door behind him and looked around the photocopying room.

Hawkins was leading the way with Balthazar over his shoulder, throwing open the other door at the far end of the room, the one that read: internet facility. Apart from that door, a solid concrete wall separated the two rooms. Swain followed as Holly and the others hurried through the doorway behind Hawkins.

Swain paused at the threshold. He was standing on a dusty handwritten sign that must have fallen from the door some time ago. It read:

STATE LIBRARY OF NEW YORK

INTERNET/ON-LINE SERVICES FACILITY

CLOSED FOR REPAIRS.

WE REGRET ANY INCONVENIENCE.

'I don't know if this is such a good idea,' he stepped inside, shutting and locking the door after him.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang from somewhere behind him and Swain spun around. He peered out through a small rectangular window set into the door -- and saw that the hoods were