Vespers

Schrank’s radio beeped. “That’s my supervisor,” he said as he slipped the unit from his back pocket. “Yes?”

Gentry watched as people climbed quickly from the shafts. He saw the supervisor standing directly below, beside the elevator door.

“We’re ready down here,” the supervisor said.

“Thanks,” Schrank said. “Tell everyone ‘good job.’” He put the radio back in his pocket and picked up a black phone under the bank of monitors. He punched in a number.

“Gordy?” he said. “We’re all set here.”

Gentry could see Joyce draw a sharp breath. He reached over and took her fingers in his.

She squeezed his hand.

A few seconds later the drumbeat came softly through a

Thirty-Eight

The great bat was lying in her nest. Her large wings were unfurled and her ears were relaxed. Despite the pains in her tail, arm, and belly, she was trying to sleep.

Suddenly, in the midst of the quiet, she heard the sound again.Muscle after muscle inside her ears contracted within milliseconds of one another, refining and sharpening and pinpointing the sound. Fatty tissue in the base of the ear dampened everything outside the focus of the external ear, absorbing all sounds but the one she wanted to hear.

It was more comforting than the sound of her mate had ever been. Yet it was so much less familiar. In her mind she couldn’t see what made it. Yet when she heard it she couldn’t think of anything but the sound.

Slowly, she raised her head and pulled her wings toward her. It was strange to be on the ground like this and not suspended in the air. But it had not been an ordinary night. She had seen death, his death. She had sought to destroy the one who had taken him from her. And then she had felt the call of new life. She had returned here to await its arrival.

Now the sound had returned.The sound that had stopped her enraged flight from death and filled her with peace and with an unfamiliar yearning. A need so old yet so near…

It was coming from outside her cave. Despite her discomfort, the bat had to go to it. She had to find the source. She had to smell, see, and touch it. She had to understand it.

She had to have it again.

The giant threw back her head and wailed. Throughout the tu

Then, when she was free of the cave, the sound suddenly disappeared-just as it had before.

The bat stopped. She listened. She heard countless smaller sounds ahead and above and to the sides. But she knew what those were: food. There were also lesser bats flying around her in all directions. She stopped wailing as she felt the loss again. Along the top of her wings, her fingers moved as though searching for something.

Where had it gone?

And then, as the lesser bats settled onto posts and ledges and wires, as the fluttering of their wings stopped, she heard it again. The sound, distant but distinct. She turned to the side.

There was another cave, larger than her own. That was where the sound was coming from. And the sound was making an echo. This cave had a back. Whatever was making the sound would not be able to leave.

Bunching her wings beside her and turning, the bat flung herself forward and soared into the air.

Thirty-Nine

She’s in!”

Charlie Schrank’s shout punched through the silence in the ventilation tower. No one cheered, though. Getting the bat in the tu

Joyce watched the tired, wounded creature crawl, leap, or occasionally fly past the succession of wide-angle video cameras. Because the optics for the black-and-white security cameras were designed to show stopped vehicles in low light, not to capture motion, the moving bat was a blur whenever she passed. It was difficult to see details, though only one seemed to matter: the bat had entered the tu

It also felt very good having Gentry hold her hand. He’d been with her almost every step of this, and she knew that he shared the satisfaction she was feeling right now.

Schrank had told them that the twelve vents in this tower covered the center section of the tu

The center of the tu

“On Group One,” Schrank said calmly as the bat moved past the video camera there.

The supervisor had come upstairs. He shouted down for the Group One canisters to be opened. When there were four hands in the air, signaling that the flow was underway, he pressed the buttons that started the fans. The blades began to spin below them. They caused a deep, pleasant hum and a gentle vibration that could be felt throughout the building.

“On Group Three,” Schrank said.

The next batch of canisters and fans was activated. The noise and vibration increased proportionately.

“She’s trapped,” Gentry said as he looked at the monitors. “Son of a bitch, we got her!”

Suddenly, the bat stopped. Her wings held wide, she turned toward the northern side wall of the tu

“That’s strange,” Joyce said. “She must be tired.”

“Or maybe she’s already feeling the cold,” Schrank said.

“It’s possible,” Joyce said, “though she’s not doing anything about it.”

“Like what?” Gentry asked.

“Folding her wings around her. Going back the way she came. Trying to get to the top of the tu

“Charlie, can we still zap her there?” Gentry asked.

“Yeah,” Schrank said. “It’ll just take longer. Let’s wait a minute and see if she starts up again.”

The view was from nearly directly overhead. Joyce watched as the bat moved her head around in slow, wide circles.

“That’s weird,” Joyce said. “She’s not listening anymore-” And then it hit her. “Shit!Shit! ”

“What?” Gentry asked.

She smacked her forehead. “I’m a fuckingidiot! The sound of the fans is drowning out the video game.” Still watching the monitor she said to Schrank, “Tell OEM to turn up the sound of-”

She didn’t finish. She watched as the bat unexpectedly cocked her first digits back, well past her head, and slammed them forward. Joyce couldn’t see what she was hitting, but she heard and felt the assault.

Schrank looked straight down. “Oh crap.The elevator.”

“Don’t tell me,” Gentry said. “The shaft-”

“-leads right from the tu

“Turn on Group Twofast! ” Joyce yelled.

Schrank ordered the last group of fans turned on. The video screens went white as the freezing gas rolled in.