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she would still rip him apart in a fight.

How do you do it? he thought. How do you kill a thing like that?

Easy. You don't.

You just keep running.

Swain took a step backwards and felt his legs touch the little Honda.

He was in the corner.

Wonderful.

He stepped out along the wall of the parking lot, away from the car, toward the door leading to the Stack.

Reese moved quickly, paralleling the move, cutting off his escape.

Swain stopped about ten feet from the Honda, his back to the wall. He could feel the thick spray of the sprinklers hammering down against his head.

He looked at his feet, at the thick pool of water that seemed to be growing around him. It wasn't even a centimetre deep, but it stretched nearly all the way across the vast concrete floor, constantly expanding as the overhead sprinklers supplied it with a constant rain of water.

He was standing in it. Reese was, too.

His eyes followed the path of the spreading pool of water.

The pool seemed to be branching out in every direction, even over toward the eastern wall, toward the door marked emergency exit.

The Emergency Exit.

Swain's mind began to race.

The Emergency Exit would have to be an exterior door, a door leading directly outside.

And if it was, then...

He froze in horror. Reese still stood opposite him. The expanding pool of water crept slowly toward the Emergency Exit.

If it was an exterior door, then it would be electrified.

And if the pool of water reached it...

'Oh dear,' Swain said aloud as he looked at the water in which he was standing. 'Oh dear...'

Run! his mind screamed. Where? Any--

'Don't move!' a voice shouted.

Swain's head jerked upright.

Reese snapped around.

Two men stood at the base of the ramp in the centre of the parking lot.

It was Harold Quaid of the National Security Agency and another agent, both dressed in SWAT gear. Quaid held a strange-looking M-16 assault rifle in his hands. The other agent held a silver semi-automatic pistol.

Swain froze.

He glanced over at the Emergency Exit -- at the sprinklers on the ceiling that showed no sign of stopping -- at the growing pool of water that continued to edge closer to the door.

It was three feet away.

He must have made to move because Quaid called again. 'I mean it! Don't move!'

Swain stood stock still.

The water edged closer to the door.

Reese scuttled off to Swain's left, away from Quaid.

Quaid and his partner edged out from the ramp, their respective guns up, eyeing Reese, eyeing Swain. They stepped out into the water.

The spreading pool was now two feet from the door.

Rain from the sprinklers kept falling.

Swain wanted to run--

'Just stay there!' Quaid barked, aiming his gun threateningly at Swain. 'I'm coming over!'

One foot...

The water was almost at the door...

Screw it, Swain thought. Either way, I'm going to die.

'Don't move--' Quaid yelled as Swain broke into a run, racing for the Civic in the corner, every step splashing in the water.

Gunfire erupted.

Swain sprinted along the concrete wall, inches ahead of a line of bulletholes.

I'm not going to make it, he thought as heavy drops from the sprinklers pounded against his face. Not going to make--

He dived for the car.

The water touched the door.

----ooo0ooo------

Swain landed on the bonnet of the little Honda with a loud thud and covered his head with his hands. At the same moment, Quaid's gunfire ceased.

Swain wasn't sure what he expected to hear. The sizzling of electrostatic currents shooting through the water. Maybe even a scream from Quaid, whom he had last seen standing in the middle of the pool of water, firing at him.

But nothing happened.

Nothing at all.

The parking lot remained dead silent, save for the constant shoosh of the sprinklers.

Swain slowly lifted his hands from his head and saw Quaid and the second NSA agent -- still standing near the central concrete ramp, their feet still in the pool of water -- staring curiously at him as he lay on the car bonnet.

Reese, however, was nowhere in sight.

The pool of water had reached the Emergency Exit and flowed right under it without incident.

Swain could think of only one explanation. It wasn't an exterior door. It hadn't been electrified. There must be another door beyond it.

Sprinkler rain continued to fall.

And then suddenly -- ferociously -- Reese burst forward from behind the second NSA agent, and abruptly, the man's ribcage exploded, replaced in an instant by the pointed tip of her tail, protruding grotesquely from his chest.

Quaid spun but he was too slow.

Reese was already moving -- extracting her tail from Martinez's body, letting the corpse drop to the floor like a rag doll -- and then trampling roughly over the body and hurling herself at Quaid, bounding into him, pitching him forward, knocking him to the floor with a splash.

She must have circled the central ramp, Swain realised, and then come up behind the two NSA agents, who had been threatening him.

Threatening her kill.

But Quaid was not giving in without a fight. He rolled onto his back just as Reese leapt onto his chest, jaws salivating, antennae swaying. Quaid reached up with his M-16, holding it above the water, and vainly sprayed the ceiling with automatic gunfire. At the same time, Swain thought he saw a flicker of white light flash out from the high-tech-looking unit attached to the barrel of Quaid's assault rifle.

The struggle continued in the pouring indoor rain -- but Reese was too strong, too heavy.