Alex Dalton was awakened early the next morning by small, furtive, scraping sounds coming from the direction of their cave's doorway. As she watched, the rough wooden door swung a few inches inward and tiny yellow eyes that shone in the near-darkness and were no more than two feet off the ground peered inside.
"Eep!" she squeaked, startled by their unexpected appearance.
The eyes widened in fear, realizing they'd been spotted by someone inside, and vanished from the doorway, but their disappearance was immediately followed by the sounds of a brief struggle. Alex sat upright on her cot and was about to get up to see what was going on when the door swung open all the way and in walked Sam Beckett, holding a dirty little urchin of a child by the collar of his ragged tunic.
"Ah, I see you caught our little snooper," said Matthew Cross.
"Yes," replied Sam, setting the street urchin down in the center of the cave floor but keeping a firm grip on his collar to keep him from fleeing. The youth flinched nervously every time someone moved, but did his best to act brave in the face of the overwhelming odds he perceived himself to be facing.
"What's going on?" asked Alex in bewilderment. Looking around the small room, she saw that everyone else was already awake and suddenly felt a little embarrassed for being the late sleeper. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?" she complained.
"We needed you for bait," replied Max.
"Bait?!?"
"To make this little Peeping-Tom think we were still sleeping so he'd try to sneak in. Meanwhile, Sam snuck around back and nabbed him in the act." Max took a menacing step towards the urchin and glared down at him with her patented Glower-of-Doom. "So what's your story, you little perv? Spill it, or else!"
Unfortunately, Max's approach worked all too well. The urchin cringed in fear and tried to back away from Max, only to bump into Sam's leg, which was as far as he could go. He twittered incoherently and tried to pry Sam's grip loose from his clothes but to no avail.
"Come on, you guys!" exclaimed Alex, outraged. "You're scaring the poor little guy. Look, he's just a kid. He was probably just scrounging for some food or something." She got up and took a few deliberately non-threatening steps towards the kid, and then knelt down so she was at eye level with him.
From behind her, Dexter Gray called, "Be careful, Alex. He might be dangerous."
Alex scrunched her face in complete rejection of such a ridiculous notion. "Men..." She turned towards the urchin and in a soothing voice said, "Hi there. My name is Alex. What's yours?"
The urchin's terrified shaking subsided somewhat under the influence of Alex's calming voice and compassionate nearness, and he stopped struggling against Sam's hold. His large luminescent eyes looked deep into Alex's, and for a split second she had the odd sensation that she was not facing a mere child, but rather a lifeform of incalculable antiquity who was gazing deeply into her very soul. She felt naked before his scrutiny, powerless to resist as the levels of her consciousness were stripped away layer by layer until no secret was left unexposed no matter how deeply buried it had been. She was not afraid however, helpless as she was in his grip, but instead was upheld by a feeling of warmth and comfort and kind benevolence. The urchin's tiny contralto voice broke the spell however, and Alex found herself back in the Banshees' cave facing a dirty little child.
"Enki," the urchin said.
Alex smiled warmly. "Hello Enki." She looked up at Sam and said, "I think you can let Enki go now, Sam." After a quick confirming glance in Carter's direction, Sam did so. Enki took a step away from Sam, glad to get away from the one who had caught him, straightened his rumpled collar with exaggerated meticulousness, then smiled at Alex with renewed bravery.
"So tell me, Enki," said Alex gently, "what were you doing at our door, hmm?"
Enki's bright eyes glinted mischievously. "You're pretty," he said in lieu of answering Alex's question.
"Well thanks, but-- Hey!"
The little urchin's hand had flashed out as quick as lightening and snatched Alex's communicator pin right from her uniform, and before Sam or anyone else could catch him he was out the front door and halfway down the winding stairs leading from the Banshees' cave to the main cavern floor a hundred feet below. Alex sprang to her feet and bounded after him, yelling, "Come back here, you little criminal!"
"Alex, wait!" shouted Carter, but it was no use. The headstrong rookie pilot was already out of earshot. "We better go after her," she said to the others, so out the door they all ran, Carter, Max, and Sam, with Matthew Cross and Dexter Gray bringing up the rear. Startled citizens scrambled to get out of their way as they ran through the city's torch-lit streets. Enki zipped and dodged through the crowds with practiced ease, but never left Alex's sight. Whenever he drew too far ahead, he would stop and taunt his struggling pursuers with his infinite youthful stamina, then run off again when they got close enough. In this way they were led through the city, ever deeper into its bowels.
Finally Carter and the others burst through a low tunnel opening into a relatively well-lit cavern about thirty feet in diameter. Before them stood Alex, breathing hard, faced off against the young Enki and an old woman.
"Ereshkigal!" exclaimed Carter in surprise.
Ereshkigal favored them all with a regal yet matronly smile and addressed the youth at her side. "Thank you for bringing them, Enki. You have done very well." She patted him gently on the head and Enki beamed at the praise.
He stepped towards Alex and dug in his pockets until he found what he was looking for. Holding her communicator pin out before him, he said, "Here."
Alex took it and reattached it to her breast, then stepped back to rejoin the rest of the Banshees. As she fell into line, Matthew Cross said, "We're going to have to have a little talk about running off by ourselves and ignoring orders to stop, Ensign." Alex looked properly chastened, and kept her silence, eyes downcast. Now that the heat of the moment had passed, she realized with growing embarrassment how foolish and immature her actions really were, especially in light of the deadly dangers all around them. She could easily have ended up like Jo -- killed by giant scorpion men.
Meanwhile, Lee Carter had closed the distance between herself and Ereshkigal. She pointed at Enki, who had returned to Ereshkigal's side, and said accusingly, "You sent him to get us? We just ran a marathon chasing this little kleptomaniac through your city. Couldn't you just have sent someone to ask us to come?"
Ereshkigal smiled benignly. "Enki can be quite the little mischief-maker at times, but he accomplished what I sent him out to do." Carter was about to object, but Ereshkigal cut her off with an imperious wave of her hand and continued, "But let us not talk of unimportant matters. I called you all here because I may have something you desperately want."
"And what would that be?" asked Max, automatically suspicious.
The old woman's expression turned to one of puzzlement, as if the answer to Max's question should have been obvious. "Why, the same thing that all here in this hellish place want.
"I know a way to escape!"
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