"What?" Aram was sure his ears had failed him. "You want me to what…?"

Shanks regarded him steadily. "I need you over here," he told the agent, "I've clamped the bleeder but I need help to complete this." His voice was steady and controlled. But there was no mistaking the urgency.

Aram was edging back into the dark a little. Away from the medic. Away from Ressler's belly with its small square of cut flesh that suddenly seemed to fill the cave. "I can't do that. I don't even do paper cuts well. Which is why I use tablets and ebooks, and-"

"Aram. Get over here."

"You know what? I watched Mr Reddington in the box with Agent Ressler. I saw on the video feed what he did. Liz," he looked to her, his eyes pleading, "You saw that too. He's the one you want." Dropping to the floor beside Red he patted on his cheeks firmly. "Mr Reddington. Mr Reddington! Wake up!"

"Aram, let me explain this. Your Mr Reddington is knocked out and we can't wait for him to come round. And even if he did, the last thing I'd do to him is expect him to make precision moves. I can't finish this one handed," Shanks told him, "and that's why I need you to complete this with me."

"I'll slip or do something really scary and then Agent Ressler will be dead. And I would have killed him. I can't do this."

"Aram!" Liz held Aram's arm, thinking fast. "Yes you can. Think of it as a software problem. There is a virus over there in that hard drive and you need to quarantine it and then eradicate it. Then run new software and patch it up…" she told him, looking into his eyes, raising her eyebrows hopefully at him.

And as ridiculous as her scenario was, once heard, he couldn't unhear it. "That's really kinda messed up, Liz."

"Damn it! I need one of you to get over here!" Shanks called to them again.

Liz turned back to Aram. Stepping forward, she got right in his face as she raised her voice. "Aram Mojtabai! Are you seriously going to look him in the eye when he wakes up and tell him 'We couldn't finish the surgery because I was too afraid to step out of my comfort zone?' Seriously? Are you really going to do that to him?" It was a lot to put on him, she was well aware of that. Too much. But they didn't have a lot of choices with Red out cold at their feet.

And just as she was about to unleash another barrage at him, he visibly calmed. His dark eyes held hers then glanced quickly to their unconscious colleague. "No, that wouldn't be cool. Not cool at all," he told her, taking a step toward Ressler and Shanks before glancing back to her.

"Way to go with the pep talk, Liz," he added, holding her eyes a moment longer. He took a deep breath, smiled nervously then went straight to Shanks. Bending down again as her back muscles screamed, Liz carefully put a pillow under Red's head as he lay on the ground. She couldn't do any more for him right now. Her partner needed her at his side.

"What do you need me to do?" Aram asked, taking deep breaths as he looked at Ressler's stomach.

"Just have confidence in yourself that you can do this. That's what I need from you. Understand?" Shanks told him calmly.

Dropping her eyes from Aram, Liz turned to her partner to get his vitals. His heart rate had increased. As soon as she donned the stethoscope she heard it. That beautiful steady beat was now faster, compensating for the bleeding. Looking up at Shanks, she realized he probably already knew that. Before he'd even asked, she took her partner's vitals and gave them to the medic.

As Shanks lifted his hand to expose the incision under the clamps, spilled blood spurted onto Aram's gloved hand. "Oh, God," he whispered, snatching his hand away.

"Confidence, Aram."

"Aram, you can do this," Liz told him. "Software. You need to get that virus taken care of…"

Dragging his eyes away from the blood pool on Ressler's stomach he looked to her. "That's a really bad analogy, Liz. But thank you."

As Shanks instructed, Aram flushed out the abdominal cavity with saline, clearing it of the blood that had seeped in when the gunmen had entered their cave. "Okay," said Shanks, throwing the empty saline bottle away. Now we can begin."

"Okay. Right. Let's do this," Aram said, looking at the cleaned incision in front of him.

And Aram the computer geek, comfortable with screens and algorithms and an insane love of numbers, took a deep breath and picked up a surgical scalpel.

###

As Shanks instructed Aram and assisted with his one hand, Liz watched them. No longer turned off at what she was looking at, or at least more used to it, she held the phones for them and provided light for them to work by. What struck her was the change in Aram. As soon as he'd picked up the scalpel, his entire demeanor had altered. Calming down and showing confidence normally reserved for war room briefings, he now handled the surgical instruments. And she had to hand it to Shanks. He was an amazing teacher and mentor, keeping Aram on track.

"Doing great, Aram. Okay, carefully now, here's the last blood vessel, then we can remove this thing. Keep going…" Shanks encouraged as Aram clamped, cut, and then tied off the blood vessels.

Aram tried not to think about the big picture and concentrated on just getting that virus off the hard drive. It was a stupid analogy, no doubt about it. But he ran with it. And with the same skill he used on a keyboard, playing his computer like a musical instrument, he cut and tied off blood vessels until the appendix was free.

"Well done, my friend," Liz told him, holding the light one handed and now reading Ressler's heart rate. Still the same. At least it hadn't sped up.

Shanks asked for the two large clamps. And clamping off the very base of the appendix, he then instructed Aram to clamp right above that one. "Now we can remove it, so get the scalpel and cut right between the two clamps."

Aram did as he was asked, guiding the scalpel between the clamps and concentrating hard. As he cut through and the appendix came loose, he gazed at it in amazement. He'd removed the virus and the hard drive was clean. Or more accurately - he had just removed his colleague's appendix. His relationship with Agent Ressler was forever altered.

"Well done, Aram. Now get that stronger thread and tie off below the clamp, really tight there…" Shanks instructed, encouraging the agent every step of the way. "Make sure it's tight… there we go…and a second one to hold it secure."

As Liz concentrated on the small square of flesh as Aram worked on her partner, she had the same feeling as Aram had. The work area ceased to be Ressler. Ceased to be her strong, confident partner - who had kissed her in a manner so unlike him as he'd gone under. It was just a small square of flesh surrounded by green drapes. They could do this for him. And had done it – his appendix was no longer part of him.

"Excellent. Now we need to start closing him up," Shanks told him, asking for his vitals again. Beside them, Liz provided them light to work by, now slightly in awe of the computer tech.

Taking his vitals again, she immediately noticed the change. "Oh, my gosh. His blood pressure and heart rate have both increased," she told the medic, looking worriedly at her partner.

Shanks looked straight at Ressler, leaving Aram's side and going to the agent, gently opening one eye with his clean gloved hand. "Damn…" he whispered. "Aram, I don't mean to rush you, because you're doing an awesome job here, but our patient is starting to wake up."

###

As well as Aram had handled the clamps and scalpel, he discovered he wasn't that good at needlepoint. The round needles were giving him a hard time and his stitches were large. And time was of the essence.

"Settle…let me pull up the needle with the clamp. You just concentrate on taking that little stitch there," Shanks told him.

Liz turned and looked at her sleeping partner. Head still tilted where Broken Nose had rammed the gun barrel into him, she gently moved his head back.

"Can he feel this?" she asked Shanks, almost dreading the answer.

"Yes and no. There is some level of pain reception, but certainly not like it would feel if he were wide awake."

"Oh, no," Aram told them, getting flustered now. "I'm trying."

"I know. 'Careful but quick' is the name of the game here," Shanks encouraged, stealing another look back up at Ressler's face.

As the first layer was closed, Aram exhaled, and looked to Shanks. "Excellent. Keep going," he told Aram as they moved the retractors up. Now he set about sewing the muscles together with small, strong stitches, immediately feeling the difference in the stronger flesh. But each stitch also took longer with the stronger muscle to get through.

"Trust Agent Ressler to have a six-pack like this to get through," Aram said softly, concentrating on getting through the muscle layer.

"His heart rate just spiked!" Liz told them, listening through the stethoscope and leaning close to her partner. As she looked worriedly into his face she half expected his eyes to open.

"Liz, keep the light here," Shanks told her, his voice taut.

"What if he wakes up before we're done?" she asked, trying not to imagine the worse.

"Let's try to avoid that," he told her, meeting her eyes over her partner before returning back to Aram and assisting him with the closure. "Your partner must have a very high tolerance to the anesthetic," he added.

She hadn't even given it a thought until now. "Oh, my…"

"Doing great," said Shanks moving the retractors up again as Aram finished stitching the first muscle layer. Positioning the needle for the first stitch on the next layer, Aram suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Liz asked, needing him to work quickly. There was no time to stop.

"If…if he does wake up while I'm stitching him closed…I'd be hurting him," he told her, looking at her, his eyes wide.

"And you will cause him a whole lot more pain if you don't MOVE it," Shanks told him firmly.

"Oh, God," he whispered, and forced himself to start the next row of stitches, moving through the dark pink muscle layer and taking one stitch at a time.

"His heart rate is still increasing," Liz told them, dividing her attention between Aram and her partner, trying to keep the phone light in place.

Ressler's head moved a little.

"Oh God!" cried Liz, putting her other hand to his chest immediately.

"Stay asleep a bit longer, Ress, please," she begged him. "Aram! Hurry!" she told him. He didn't look up, just kept on taking one stitch after another.

"Almost there," Shanks told Aram, as he set about closing the yellow fatty later. Again he noticed the difference in the feel of the flesh, while still trying to think of nothing else beyond taking one small strong stitch at a time. "Come on, come on, come on…" he whispered, urging himself on.

A small gasp came from Ressler.

"No, no, no…" Liz heard the thump of his heart in her ears reach a new level. Thrusting the phone to Shanks she was beside her partner now, seeing movement under his eyelids.

Aram finally reached the skin layer. Breathing rapidly, he stood still as Shanks pulled the retractors away and smoothed the incision back together. "Okay, individual stitches and tie each one off about a quarter of an inch apart," he told him as he lit up the area. He didn't need to add 'and hurry'.

Underneath Aram's needle, Ressler's stomach quivered.

"Oh, God! He's waking up!" panted Aram, looking quickly up at Shanks.

"Do it," Shanks ordered him. "NOW."

Aram obeyed, wiping sweat from his eyes with his sleeve before placing the needle back into the flesh and making the next stitch.

Ressler's eyes opened.

"No!" Liz gasped, leaning over him.

Unable to focus, Ressler panted as the pain hit him.

"Ress, I'm right here," Liz told him, in his face. "We're almost done."

He couldn't speak to her and as his heart rate thundered in her ears, he gasped again.

"Aram!" she called out, glancing back to the two men. Hunched over Ressler's belly, they didn't look up or reply.

His eyes found hers and held onto her as she stroked his hair. "I know, I know… you don't know what's going on…"

From behind Ressler, she suddenly heard a groan as Red started to wake up. She couldn't even think about him right now.

"Almost there. You almost got it, Aram."

She half heard Shanks as Ressler grunted in pain, moving his head more.

Underneath Aram, Ressler's belly flinched. "Oh God!" he said, almost jumping back.

"Finish it," Shanks told him firmly.

"Okay, okay," Aram replied, taking another stitch. He was almost done. Just one more stitch and he'd be finished. But it wasn't like before. Now Agent Ressler was moving under him as he stitched his flesh, piercing it with his small needle.

A silent tear escaped Ressler's eye and rolled gently down his face. And leaning to him, her own eyes shining with tears, Liz brushed it away with her thumb as she held his head gently in her hands.

"I'm here, we're almost done," she told him, inches from his face.

And under her hands, he was back in a box. With a criminal standing over him holding his head in exactly the same manner. Telling him he was useless to him if he didn't act now.

He found his voice, pulling it up from the closed recesses of his throat. "…li..z…"

She nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks now, still above him. "I'm right here…"

"Oh my God, I'm done!"

From behind her she heard Aram and glanced back to see him standing wide eyed at the closed incision.

Shanks retrieved the gauze and dressing from the supplies, moving back quickly to lay them on the green drapes. "We need to dress the wound too," he told his pseudo intern, placing the sterile dry gauze along the stitch line. Handing the tape to Aram, he had him tape it down securely.

"Now you're done," he told Aram and allowed a smile.

"We're all done Ress," she told her partner, as his sleepy eyes blinked slowly. Now cupping just one cheek, she reached for the wet cloth and wiped his face. "We're all done," she told him,

Shanks came up to him and leaned down to their patient. "Hey there, I'll put some morphine in your IV for you. You look like you could do with it," offered Shanks, reaching for his kit.

Ressler's eyes opened wider, looking at Liz, shaking his head very slowly. "…no…"

She put her hand out to stop Shanks. "He doesn't want it."

"He needs it."

"He said no."

And as Shanks shrugged and took the morphine away, Ressler gasped again, trying to focus his eyes.

Liz turned back to him, her hand now on her partner's forehead, noticing that his fever was already dropping. "We're all done…"

From the floor Red groaned again, moving a little and attempting to get up. And Aram, who had just performed a surgery and could now take on anything – even Raymond Reddington - left Ressler's side and dropped down to the criminal.

"Perfect timing, Mr Reddington," said Aram, "you slept through all the... fun," he added, then looked up at Liz, her cheeks still wet with tears. "I didn't mean it was actually 'fun'," he said quietly.

"I know," she told him, her hand still on Ressler's forehead. He was drifting off. Unable to stay awake with the residue of the anesthetic still in his system.

"You did awesome, both of you," Shanks told them, shaking his head. Never had he seen such a surgery, and he'd seen some crazy stuff with the Coast Guard.

From the floor, Red was mumbling. "Get me up… get me off this floor…" Reaching for him, Aram carefully helped him up and over to the couch. Leaning back, hand to his bleeding forehead he was sure there was the imprint of an assault rifle etched into his skin. Red tried to focus his eyes on them. "You just got done?" he asked as his voice became a little more coherent.

"Hell, yes! We've got some partying to do!" grinned Aram, and then looked at Red. "Um, I mean, yes we did." But his grin couldn't help but spring forth and unable to contain himself he looked across to Liz who now smiled at him.

Red smiled, despite the pain in his head. "Excellent. And when this fairy elephant stops doing the rumba in my skull you can explain to me just how you achieved that. But for now, how's he doing?" he asked, still laying back on the couch.

"His heart rate is high, but that will come down as he gets more fluids into him," Shanks replied, removing the stethoscope from his ears, "and after he recovers from waking up during that…" he added, looking at the sleeping agent.

Finding a light blanket, Shanks placed it over Ressler and with Liz's assistance, they then removed the green drapes from under it to let their patient rest.

Shanks then turned his attention to Red. "Let me look at you though. That was a nasty blow you took."

"Oh, I'm fine," Red told the medic who was now completely ignoring him and placing gauze on Red's bleeding forehead. "Hold that," he told Red, then got his small flashlight and shone it in Red's eyes.

"Thank you so much for providing a spotlight for the elephant to do her solo," said Red and closed his eyes as he held the gauze to his pounding head.

###

Almost an hour later Ressler stirred again, moving his head a little as his eyes fluttered. Slowly opening his eyes he found Liz still at his side, her blue eyes just as he'd remembered them as he had drifted off. And how they looked at him when he woke up earlier. The memory was vague. But he had woken up before they got done, that much was clear.

"Hey, welcome back…" she told him softly as he shut his eyes again, gasping as a surge of incision pain hit him.

Shanks looked toward her, with an 'I told you' look in his eyes. She ignored it. She knew her partner far better than the medic.

Red filled his view, leaning over him and patting his chest. He was feeling better, the fairy elephant having left for more dance lessons. "Donald, my friend. You are now short one horribly inflamed appendix, thanks to a mammoth team effort," Red smiled at him.

"Thank you…" he whispered again. As Red moved back, Aram replaced him.

"Agent Ressler, glad to see you up and about. I mean. Awake. Um. Again," he said, looking down at their groggy companion. He might have just removed his colleague's appendix, but he was apparently still afflicted with foot-in-mouth disease when it came to actually communicating with him.

"…raring to go…" Ressler told them, now looking at the roof of the cave above him, softly lit in the shadows. He was drifting off again, still unable to stay awake long. "…still in the Bat Cave, I see…" he said softly, before falling asleep.

###

Forty minutes later, Red sat up on the couch as they ate a rudimentary meal from Conrad's supplies. "Unbelievable," he said, standing up. "He's right," he said, walking toward the backpack lying on the floor to retrieve the large flashlight.

"What?" Aram asked, turning from the small table where he was currently mourning the loss of the burnt out computers, as if by his very presence he could breathe new life into them. "Who's right?"

"And about what?" added Liz, watching him come back into the lit area.

"Donald. And his Bat Cave," he told them. "When Conrad and I were walking through the tunnels yesterday, we passed a small cave. Not unlike this one and maybe half the size. I shone the flashlight in as we walked by and saw fresh bat droppings on the ground."

Still sitting in her chair beside her sleeping partner, Liz wrinkled up her nose at the thought of that as she put her fork down on her plate. "Okay…"

Red continued, "Bats are creatures of habit. And truthfully, quite undeserving of the bad rap they get. But, in their simple lives they eat each night. Roost during the day. Make baby bats. And then eat again the next night-"

"Oh!" Aram stood up. "With the tunnels blocked how are the bats getting in and out to hunt?!"

Red smiled at Aram, tilting his head as he saw the cogs turning in the agents head.

"There's another way out?" Looking from one to the other, Liz stood up by Ressler. "But bats are tiny. Where they get out, we couldn't fit..."

"No, we couldn't-"

Shanks completed the sentence for Red, grabbing the two-way radio that had been enclosed with the medical supplies. "Not unless someone found their opening and enlarged it," he said, pressing the call button. "Evans, how are you guys progressing on the cave in?" he asked.

The squelch came back on the two-way as Evans replied, his frustration apparent. "Slowly. It's like pulling teeth out here, but hey, at least the rain has stopped for now. We're still looking at another day I'd say. How's our patient?"

"Patient is doing well and recovering now," Shanks told him. "We may have a Plan B to get out of here. Actually, Plan C. There is another cavern down here that we think must have a small opening to the outside. Do you still have that big drill on site?" Shanks asked, looking hopefully up at the small group now surrounding him.

"We do. I see where you're going. Where's this cavern?" Evans replied, his voice sounding more positive now.

Shanks pressed the mic again. "It's almost sundown, right? The day and night don't mean much down here. But I need you and a couple of guys to come up off the beach and into the forest, and watch for a small colony of bats flying out to do their nightly hunt. Look at where they came from and see if it's possible to drill through there."

"I'm on it! I'll get back to you if and when we see these bats of yours!" Evans replied, as they heard him calling out to Deeks before he let go of the mic.

As Shanks dropped the two-way to one of his vest pockets, he turned to Red. "Score one for Batman."

"So we might get out of here earlier than we thought. And after we get Donald off to the hospital to keep the medical community gainfully employed again, we need to find Conrad," Red told them, already thinking ahead.

They all looked toward the exit tunnel. Sitting dark at the back of the cave, it had almost been forgotten as they'd finished the surgery. But now, the memory of the wet-suited gunmen came back to them.

"We need to ascertain where they took him," Red said quietly, turning back to the group.

"That creepy sanatorium would be my guess," said Aram, shuddering. "That place was uber strange."

"Why did they take him? What on earth do they want him for so badly?" asked Liz, leaning forward on her elbows beside Ressler.

"He has information that they'd rather not be in anyone's possession but theirs. And I can guarantee you they will not be asking him nicely and serving him afternoon tea in their quest to obtain it," Red explained.

"And when they get it, he will be of no use to them and he will be gone. Dead for real this time," he finished, turning the flashlight on and aiming it to the tunnel.

Shanks stood across from him, "Well, I don't know much about this secret spy stuff, but let's go find this bat cave, shall we?"

"What if those men come back?" asked Aram "we shouldn't all go and leave Liz and Agent Ressler alone, right?"

"Those men got what they came for," Red told him, giving Liz a small smile. "They won't be back."

Aram left the computer desk, coming to join the two men. "Okay, well in that case, Holy Escape Plan!" he grinned, as Red gave him a patient look. "Too much?"

Chuckling, Red hoisted the backpack as they headed for the exit tunnel. "Let's go find them. Lizzie, take care of our patient," Red called out to her as the three men left, the flashlight illuminating their path as Liz sat back down, her eyes resting on her partner. And still fast asleep with the after effects of the anesthetic in his system, Ressler was completely unaware he may have just found them a quicker way out.

###

Leaving the cave, the three men headed down the tunnels, walking silently as if afraid to bring notice to their presence. The flashlight shone ahead of them, illuminating the tunnel walls and support beams. Whoever had carved these tunnels out of the limestone had spent a lot of time and effort. Such was the importance of hiding their ill-gotten moonshine produce. At length they came to an offshoot tunnel running parallel with the flooded tunnel.

"Not this one, it's the next one on the right," he told them and kept on walking.

"It's… kinda creepy down here…" Aram said quietly, as he peered ahead in the beam of light. "I'll be glad to see the light of day again. Or the dark of night," he said, mostly to himself as the other two kept on walking beside him. "Those would make great song lyrics."

"There it is," said Red as they approached another tunnel running away to their left. "It's a little way down there. I'm not sure how far we've come. Maybe quarter of a mile if you want to let your associates aware of that," he told Shanks who reached for his two-way.

In the quiet tunnels, the radio sounded harsh breaking through the silence. "Yeah, we're out here. Got three of us watching for these little suckers. No pun intended," came back Evans on the radio.

"We're almost at the cave so we'll be able to tell you when they take flight and head up," Red told him as Shanks held the radio close to him, pressing the mic down.

"I can smell it…I think," said Aram, and he was right. From ahead came the faint odor of the bat droppings, out of place in the dry tunnels.

As they walked closer, Red's flashlight picked up the entrance to the cave ahead, a large ragged opening interrupting the smoother line of the man-made tunnels.

"If we shine the flashlight on them it will disturb them, right?" asked Aram quietly.

"Yes, but the oil lamp here should be okay," Red told him as they reached the cave. Lighting the oil lamp he placed it on the tunnel floor outside the cave and turned the flashlight off. From inside the cave came small squeaks and the shuffling of wings high above them.

"I don't see any daylight filtering in," Shanks whispered, not wanting to disturb the colony.

"If it's not a direct path, we wouldn't though," Red offered, keeping his voice low.

In the glow and shadows produced by the oil lamp the roof above them was completely dark. Covered in hanging bats, they completely hid the beige sandstone of the cave.

"About how many would that be?" asked Aram quietly gazing up at the colony as they moved continually against the ceiling.

"Few thousand…" whispered Shanks. "I've seen them over the water in the bay. Never knew this was where they came from."

And as they spoke in hushed tones the squeaking and activity intensified as several bats dropped from the roof and swooped down, circling the cave.

###

In the main cave, Liz sat beside her partner as he began to wake up again. "Hey, you gonna sleep the whole day away?" she smiled as he opened his eyes again, turning his head a little to look at her.

Much more alert now, he looked up at her. "Thought I might…" Turning his head he viewed the quiet cave. "Where is everyone?"

"Would you believe they've gone bat hunting?" she told him, smiling at his look as he turned back to her.

"I see… Why?"

She filled him in as he chuckled at that, "Knew it all along." He stretched out his back a little, wincing at the pain that brought to his incision. "I need to sit up. This cot is killing my back."

She helped him up, and as he sat grimacing in pain as it put pressure on his incision, he pulled the blanket around his waist. "Guess I should really put some clothes on, right?"

She stood by him, her hand on his shoulder and didn't reply to his comment. "Ress, something happened during your surgery. Actually, several things happened. But the main one is that they came in and took Conrad at gunpoint," she told him as he looked at her sharply.

"Damn."

She saw the cogs turning, waiting for it. And there it was.

"Oh, let me guess, Doctor Red finally got to do it all himself."

"Well, not quite." She was smiling, tilting her head wondering just how he'd take the news. "He got knocked out during the big 'Conrad taking episode'. So we roped in a substitute."

Recalling her hands on his face as he'd woken too early, that only left one person. "Aram…"

"Yup, our illustrious computer geek stepped in," she said, watching him raise his eyebrows at that.

"And he didn't even have an umbrella…"

###

"Here we go…" said Red as Shanks lifted his two way radio. The air took on a new sound as a few bats left their roosts on the ceiling of the cave, the fluttering of their wings increasing. And as one, in an unspoken command the bats took flight. The air was filled with the beating of wings and a high a pitched whistling as the small mammals swooped and soared, circling their cave.

"Wow…" breathed Aram, the smell forgotten momentarily as he peered into the cave in awe. He felt like Bruce Wayne on discovering his cave below his estate. "That. Is. Awesome…"

"Why aren't they flying out?" Shanks asked no one in particular as the bats continued to circle.

"Because they can't! Move aside!" Red hissed, as they scrambled a few steps back toward the way they'd come from the tunnel

Immediately the bats changed course and swooped from their cave and out the entrance they had just been standing in. The flapping wings of several hundred bats passed them, their high pitched whistles almost deafening the three men.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Aram, ducking as more bats followed the first group.

The bats were flying down the tunnel away from them.

"Follow them!" called Red, picking up the oil lamp now, not wanting to shine the bright flashlight on the bats. They ran, crouching down as hundreds of bats flew overhead, their hands over their heads in an instinctive protective stance.

"Their exit better not be past that old cave-in," Red puffed, running with the two men.

"Evans, they're flying. Can you see them?" Shanks radioed, trying to keep pace with the other two as he juggled his radio one handed.

"We can! Wow!"

"Yes!" said Aram as they heard Evans on the outside. The bats fluttered above them, so many that they formed a dense cloud of living, breathing creatures. Their exit was not beyond the old cave-in as Red had feared. Instead, the bats entered a small alcove in the tunnel about 10 feet in front of them.

They stopped, standing beyond the alcove now and looking back to the bats spiraling wildly upward above them, before disappearing through the as yet unseen opening.

"That's not a cave. That's a walk-in closet," said Aram as Red walked by him, peering up as best he could. He could barely make out a sliver of light as the small opening was almost obliterated by the flying throng exiting the cave.

"Amazing," said Shanks softly as Aram nodded beside him.

"Absolutely. And noisy," Aram added.

It took a few minutes for the majority of the colony to exit the cave. As most of them left on their nightly hunt of insects, the numbers remaining inside dwindled, leaving only a few bats circling in the air.

"Evans, have you pinpointed their exit from up there?" Shanks asked, releasing the mic button to await the reply.

There was no sound on the radio. Instead, a bright beam of light shone down from the roof above, forming a circle of light in front of them on the tunnel floor. Evans was peering in from about 20 feet above them through a small opening of perhaps 18 inches wide.

"Someone call for a cab?"