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hear your voice.'

'Hmmm,' Charlton mused. 'Poor bastard...'

'It's hearing your voice,' Mike Fraser whispered into Bob Charlton's ear.

Charlton jumped away from the cell.

Fraser was right up close to the bars, only inches away from Charlton's head. Charlton hadn't even heard him come across the cell.

Fraser kept talking in an exaggerated whisper,' Whatever it is, it's hearing your voice! And if you keep talking...'

The black man was pressing his bloodstained face up against the bars, trying to get as close to Charlton as possible. The streaks of dried blood running vertically down his face gave him an aspect of pure evil.

'Whatever it is, it's hearing your voice! And if you keep talking!' Fraser hissed crazily. He was starting to wail.

'And if you keep talking! Talking! Talking! Ah-ah-ah!' Fraser was looking up at the ceiling, at some imaginary creature looming above him. He held up his hands to ward off the unseen foe. 'Oh my God! It's here! It's after me! It's here! Oh God, help me! Somebody help me!'

Frantically, he began to shake the bars of the cell. Finally he fell limp, his arms hanging through the bars. At last Fraser looked up at Charlton.

'Don't go there,' he hissed.

Charlton leaned closer, spoke gently. 'Why? What's there?'

Fraser offered a sly, evil grin through his mask of dried blood. 'If you go, you go. But you won't comeback alive.'

'He's nuts. Lost it, that's all,' Dickson said as they walked back to the main entrance of the station.

'You think he killed the guard?' Charlton asked.

'Him? Nah. Probably stumbled on the guys who did, though.'

'And you think they messed him up? Scared him to death by painting him in the guard's blood?'

'Something like that.'

Charlton stroked his chin as he walked. 'I don't know. I think I better check out our links with that library. It's worth a shot. Might be that whoever got hold of Michael Fraser decided to hack up my junction line, too. And if they hacked the junction at the booster valve, it would definitely be possible to bring the whole main down.'

They reached the doors.

'Sergeant,' Charlton said as the two men shook hands, 'thank you for your time and help. It's been, well, interesting, to say the least.'

----ooo0ooo------

Stephen Swain peered out from behind the handcuffed door of the New York State Library's rather generously named Internet Facility.

The doors of the darkened elevator were fully open now but nothing was happening.

The elevator was just sitting there.

Open and silent.

For their part, the hoods were nowhere to be seen. Having hustled out of the photocopying room, they must have been out on the balcony somewhere. Hiding...

Swain watched intently, waiting for something to emerge from the lift.

'Could be empty,' Hawkins whispered.

'Could be,' Swain replied. 'Maybe whoever pressed the button never got in.'

'Shhh,' Selexin hissed, 'something is coming out.'

They turned back to face the elevator.

'Uh-oh,' Hawkins said.

'Oh man,' Swain sighed, 'doesn't this guy ever quit?'

The tail emerged first, pointing forward, hovering horizontally three feet above the ground. Swain could easily see the slight kink in the tail a few inches from the tip where he had broken the bone. The antennae came next, followed by the snout, cautiously moving out from the elevator.

'She is not a guy,' Selexin said. 'I told you that before, Reese is female.'

'How did she figure out the elevator?' Hawkins asked as they watched Reese lower her snout and sniff the floor.

'I imagine,' Selexin said, 'she smelled Mister Swain's residual scent on one of the buttons--'

Abruptly, Reese's snout snapped up and pointed directly at them. Swain and Hawkins ducked instantly behind the door. Selexin didn't move.

'What are you doing? She cannot see you,' he whispered. 'She can only smell you. To hide behind the door won't extinguish your scent-trail. Besides,' he added sourly, 'she probably already knows we are here.'

Swain and Hawkins resumed their positions at the door.

Hawkins said, 'So why isn't she coming after us?'

Selexin sighed. 'Honestly, it is a wonder that I bother explaining anything to you. I would think that the reason why Reese has not come directly after us is perfectly obvious.'

'And what is that?' Hawkins said.

'Because she smells something else,' Selexin said. 'Some other creature that I would safely assume is far more worrisome to her than you are.'

'The hoods,' Swain said, not taking his eyes off Reese. She was standing perfectly still at the mouth of the elevator.

'Correct. And since they were out there only very recently, their scent is probably very strong,' Selexin said. 'I would therefore assert that at the moment, Reese is feeling particularly concerned.'

For a long minute they watched Reese in silence. Her long, low, dinosaur-like body didn't move an inch. Her tail was poised high, tensed, ready to strike.

Hawkins said, 'So what do we do?'

Swain was frowning, thinking.

'We get out,' he said finally.

'What!' Selexin and Hawkins said at the same time.

Swain was already reaching up for the handcuffs, unlocking them.

'For one thing, we can't stay here,' he said. 'Sooner or later one of those bastards out there is going to break down this door. And when that happens, we'll be trapped. I say we get ready to run as soon as something happens.'

'As soon as something happens?' Selexin said. 'A rather inexact plan if you don't mind my saying so.'

Swain put the cuffs in his pocket and shrugged at the little man. 'Let's just say that I've got a feeling something is about to happen out there. And when it does, I want all of us to be ready to make a break for it.'

Several minutes later, Swain had Balthazar draped over his shoulder while Hawkins held Holly by the hand. The door was open a full two feet.

Outside, Reese stood rigidly in front of the elevator, visibly tensed, alert.

They waited.

Reese didn't move.

Another minute ticked by.

Swain turned to face the group. 'All right, when I say go, run straight for the stairwell. When you get there, don't stop, don't look back, just go straight up. When we hit the Third Floor, I'll lead the way from there.