gingerly as a pickpocket stepping past a precinct house. Sometimes my toes or heel hit something soft or rolled across a formless, pulpy mass. I didn't want to know...
We veered off to the right. I stopped.
'Welcome to Fifth Avenue,' she said, looking up at a peeling sign.
'Shh.' Something buzzed in the silence. Rats cavorted off in the distance. How they could stand the smell was beyond me.
I flicked off the flashlight. We stood silently in a pitch darkness thatafter a few moments-didn't seem so black. I must be getting old. Blondie was the first to see the light.
'Over there.' She pointed.
I glanced squintily around until I saw a faint sliver of light illuminating a corner of the far wall.
'Could be light from the hole where South Tower stood,' I whispered.
'Not at this hour. Come on.' She slogged forward. 'That's what we're looking for.' At least we were heading toward shallower water.
Ann's foot stepped on something and slipped out from under her.
I was close enough to catch her just by reaching toward her sounds in the darkness. My arm tightened around her waist as though both had been built for that single purpose. I pulled her close. She smelled like summer would smell to someone who'd spent his entire life in winter.
Her arms wrapped around me-fists that clutched a purse and a knife thumping lightly against my back. She pulled me even closer. Her hair brushed against my cheek, softly as a fawn's touch.
Somewhere, someone began to recite poetry. It didn't fit the mood. It wasn't particularly romantic.
'That's him,' she whispered.
She untangled herself quickly to crouch low, listening.
Off in the dim glow ahead of us, a deep voice rumbled in loud, fearless tones. He must have surmised that no one would be around to hear him. He'd taken deadly enough precautions.
'In the name of the Ruler of Earth and the King of the World, I command the Forces of Darkness to gather and heed my call!'
Whoever was in there sounded insanely serious. And just a shade too familiar.
I thumbed on the flash and dripped forward as quietly as the first rays of dawn sneaking into a war zone. Ann kept by my side, holding her pigsticker with tight knuckles. We followed the buzzing noise and the light.
'The time of the Usurper is nigh!' the voice bellowed. 'I call upon the Legions of the Night to rise up around me! Throw open the Gates of Hell! Come forward from the Abyss. Serve
, your brother and ally, your Father and Master!'
We rounded an oblique passage to wade through a small atrium. Twin open stairways cascaded into the slime pooled at their bases. The light from around a low corner at the far end of the corridor grew more intense.
The buzzing sound grew louder. An acrid aroma of some exotic incense filled the damp, oppressive atmosphere.
'Flies,' Ann said, waving her knife around as if to slash them away.
The voice droned on, louder and more imperious. 'By all the Gods of the Pit, I command these things to come to pass! Fire and Death! Blood and Victory!'
His voice cracked and boomed in a rich baritone, with all the force of a general marshaling his troops.
We splashed closer, wading through calf-deep water and insects. The flickering light turned a shade more orange. I took another step forward and the swarm of flies closed behind me like a curtain. Ann followed me into the clearing and gasped as if she'd been stabbed in the stomach.
'Come on,' I said. 'We're almost out of the water.'
