He sensed a figure, standing just beyond the light. "I'm Colonel Matt Rhodes, United States Air Force" he said. After a few more seconds, it stopped in midphrase, and the silence descended again. The singing had a metallic undertone, and it drifted past him like a half-remembered Sunday school song from a tinny record player. And first of all, she had to be found-he hoped by himself and not by Stinger. There was no way to know what its intent and capabilities were until Daufin explained why it was after her. Heading where, and for what reason? If Stinger was digging tunnels like this one under the entire town, then it was either wasting a lot of energy or preparing for a major assault. Maybe it was the sound of something digging, or the sound of a massive thing moving through an already-dug tunnel. The noise seemed to be coming from somewhere to his left. Little scurryings of fear ran in his belly.
Or a subterranean bulldozer, he thought grimly. It ceased after a few seconds-and then there it was again, a rumbling like a subway train somewhere beyond the walls. There was a distant rumbling noise, and a slight vibration in the tunnel floor. He couldn't move, and he feared that if he did break his legs loose from their terror lock and start running, whatever was down there would be on him before he could make it the sixty feet back to where Vance waited. There was silence, except for a slow dripping noise. "Let me see you." "Hot hot hot" It occurred to him that it might really be an old woman, fallen down here and gone crazy in the darkness. "Praise the Lord" "Step into the light," Rhodes said. Put out that hot wand of hell and let's have us a tea party." The flashlight, Rhodes realized. "Where you goin', Colonel Matt Rhodes United States Air Force? Love thy neighbor as thyself. "You okay?" "You okay?" the awful voice in front of him mimicked. "Colonel?" It was Vance's voice, echoing through the tunnel from behind him. A bead of sweat crawled into his eye and burned it like a torch. Why wasn't the thing still taunting him? Where the hell was it? He glanced over his shoulder, quickly shone the light behind him.
If alien eyes had never been exposed to electric light before, then. The light was holding it at bay maybe something in the wavelength of electric light, he reasoned. The thing didn't speak again, and all Rhodes wanted to do was to get out of this tunnel, but he dared not turn his back and run.
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