Tunnels 01, Tunnels

said, and Will could only bring himself to nod in response. He knew that none of this, none of these revelations that he might have a real family down here in the Colony, would change the way he felt about his father. And no matter how difficult Rebecca made his life, he had to admit to himself that he missed her terribly. He felt a tremendous surge of guilt, knowing that by now she'd be racked with worry about what had happened to him. Her small and well-ordered world would be unwinding around her. He swallowed hard. I'm sorry, Rebecca, I should have told you, I should have left a note! He wondered if she'd called the police after it was discovered that he was missing, the same ineffective procedure they'd put into motion when their father had disappeared. But all this was pushed aside in an instant when the image of Chester, alone and still incarcerated in that awful cell, flashed before him.
    "What will happen to my friend?" he blurted out.
    Grandma Macaulay didn't answer, staring absently into the fire, but Cal was quick to respond.
    "They'll never let him go back... or you."
    "But why?" Will asked. "We'll promise not to say anything... about all this."
    There were a few seconds of silence, and then Grandma Macaulay coughed gently.
    "It wouldn't wash with the Styx," she said. "They couldn't have anyone telling the Topsoilers about us. It might bring about the Discovery."
    "The Discovery?"
    "It's what we're taught in the Book of Catastrophes. It is the end of all things, when the people are ferreted out and perish at the hands of those above," Cal said flatly, as if reciting a verse.
    "God forbid," the old lady murmured, averting her eyes and staring into the flames again.
    "So what will they do with Chester?" Will asked, dreading the answer.
    "Either he'll be put to work or he might be Banished... sent on a train down to the Deeps and left to fend for himself," Cal replied.
    Will was about to ask what the Deeps were when out in the hall the front door was flung open with a bang. The fire flared and threw up a shower of sparks, which glowed briefly as they were drawn up the chimney. Grandma Macaulay peered around the side of her armchair, smiling as Cal and Bartleby both leaped to their feet. A powerful man's voice bellowed, "HELLO IN THERE!"
    Still sleep-ridden, the cat blundered sideways against the underside of an occasional table, which crashed to the ground at the same instant that the drawing room door burst open. A massive, thickset amn entered the room like dirty thunder, his pale yet ruddy-cheeked face beaming with undisguised excitement.
    "WHERE IS HE? WHERE IS HE?" he shouted, and locked his fierce gaze on Will, who rose apprehensively from his chair, uncertain what to make of this human explosion. In two strides, the man had crossed the room and clasped Will in a bear hug, hoisting him off his feet as if he weighed no more than a bag of feathers. Letting out a deafening roar of a laugh, he held Will at arm's length with his feet dangling helplessly in midair.
    "Let me look at you. Yes... yes, you're your mother's boy, no mistake; it's the eyes, isn't it, Ma? He's got her eyes, and her chin... the shape of her handsome face, by God, ha-ha-ha!" he bellowed.
    "Do put him down, Tam," Grandma Macaulay said.
    The man lowered Will back down to the floor, still staring intently into the startled boy's eyes and grinning and shaking his head.
    "It's a great day, a great day indeed." He stuck out a hug ham of a hand toward Will. "I'm your uncle Tam."
    Will automatically held out his hand and Tam took it into his giant palm, shook it in an iron grip, and pulled Will in toward him, ruffling his hair with his other hand and sniffing at the top of his head loudly in an exaggerated manner.
    "He's awash with Macaulay blood, this one," he boomed. "Wouldn't you say so, Ma?"
    "Without a doubt," she said softly. "But don't you be frightening him with your horseplay, Tam."
    Bartleby was rubbing his massive head against Uncle Tam's oily black pant legs and insinuating his long body between his and Will's, all the while purring and making an unearthly low whining sound. Tam glanced briefly down at the creature and then up at Cal, who was still standing next to his grandmother's chair, enjoying the spectacle.
    "Cal, the magician's apprentice, how are you, lad? What do you think of all this, eh?" He looked from one boy to the other. "By God, it's good to see you two under the same roof again." He shook his head in disbelief.