Tunnels 02, Deeper

few more seconds wouldn't make any difference to someone who was already dead.
    But then, the story they had told her bore out what was written in the note. After all, the Styx could have executed her there and then in the excavation. So why go to all that trouble to save her?
    Rebecca had recounted what had happened on the fateful day Tam lost his life. How the EternalCity had been blanketed in an impenetrable fog and the viperous Will had set off pyrotechnic devices to attract the Styx soldiers. In all the confusion, Tam was drawn into the middle of an ambush and, mistaken for a Topsoiler, had been killed. Worse still, Rebecca said there was a strong possibility that Will himself had wounded Tam with blows from a machete in order to leave him behind as a decoy for the Styx soldiers. Sarah's blood boiled at this. Whatever had happened, Will had saved his own worthless skin, forcing Cal to go with him.
    Rebecca also said Imago Freebone, a childhood friend of Sarah's and Tam's, had been present at the incident. According to Rebecca, he had since gone missing, and she could only presume that Will had something to do with this as well. Sarah saw tears in Joe Waites's eyes as Rebecca spoke about this. As a member of Tam's little gang, Imago had been Joe's friend, too.
    Sarah couldn't begin to comprehend Will's callous lack of regard for his own brother's life, let alone his murderous behavior. What sort of devious, conniving animal had he become?
    Once Rebecca had finished telling her the chain of events, Sarah had asked for a moment alone with Joe Waites, and the Styx girl, much to Sarah's amazement, had granted it. Rebecca and the complement of Styx and Colonists dutifully withdrew from the underground cavern, leaving them together.
    Only then had Sarah lowered her knife. She sat in the empty armchair next to Joe. The two of them had talked rapidly while Rebecca and her escort waited in the tunnel leading to the bone pit. Joe retold the tale in rushed whispers, corroborating everything in the note he'd left and the version of events Rebecca had just given. Sarah needed to hear it again from start to finish, form someone she knew she could trust.
    When Rebecca returned, she made Sarah a proposal. If Sarah was prepared to join forces with the Styx, she would be provided with the means to track down Will. She would be given the opportunity to right two wrongs: to avenge her brother's murder and to rescue Cal.
    It was an offer Sarah couldn't ignore. Too much was left undone.
    And, now, here she was, in a metal cage with her avowed enemy, the Styx! What had she been thinking?
    Sarah tried to imagine what Tam would have done if faced with the same situation. But it didn't help, and she became agitated, picking at the clot on her neck, not caring in the least that it might cause the cut to open up and start bleeding again.
    Rebecca half turned her head but didn't look toward Sarah, as if she could sense her turmoil. She cleared her throat and asked softly, "How are you doing, Sarah?"
    Sarah stared back at the Styx girl's head, at the raven-black hair that spilled over the immaculate white collar, and spoke, her voice finding a new aggression.
    "Just dandy. This sort of thing happens to me all the time."
    "I know how difficult this is for you," Rebecca said soothingly. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"
    "Yes," Sarah replied. "You insinuated your way into the Burrows family. You were in the house with my son for all those years."
    "With Will -- yes, that's right," Rebecca said without any hesitation, but ceased the constant scuffing of her shoe on the iron floor.
    "Tell me about him," Sarah demanded.
    "What will grow crooked, you can't make straight," the Styx girl said, letting the phrase hang in the air as they trundled downward. "There was something a little strange about him, right from the word go. He found it difficult to make friends and became even more withdrawn and distant as he grew older."
    "No question he was a loner," Sarah agreed, recalling the times she had watched Will as he went about his digs.
    "You don't know the half of it," Rebecca said in a slightly tremulous voice. "He could be rally scary."
    "What do you mean?" Sarah asked.
    "Well, he expected everything to be done for him: his laundry, his meals... everything, and he'd fly off the handle at the smallest thing that wasn't just as he wanted it. You should've seen him -- one moment he was fine, and the next he'd completely flip out and go into a