Tunnels 03, Freefall

house: Thou shalt not interrupt my viewing .
    "I only wanted to explain to your mother what I was intending to do," Dr. Burrows said weakly, as if he was trying hard to justify what he'd done.
    "Dad, there's something else, too... you keep saying she's my mother. She's not my real mother, and you're not my real father, are you? Why did you never tell me I was adopted?"
    Dr. Burrows remained silent for several paces. As they walked side by side, Will felt the tension between them, and wondered if his father was going to answer him. He did finally.
    "When I was young, my parents had a friend who used to visit," Dr. Burrows said. "He was called Jeff Stokes, but to me he was Uncle Stokes. He was married to some woman who owned a stables outside London, and he had a couple of kids, but he never brought them with him." Dr. Burrows smiled. "He was a fascinating character, and both my mother and father loved his company. There was a ripple of excitement in the place when he turned up, always in the latest model sports car or on a massive motorbike. And for me, it was extra special, like a Christmas or birthday, because he never came empty-handed -- he always brought me the most wonderful presents. A magic set or some Matchbox cars... he even gave me my first microscope, in a little wooden case with slides of crystals and butterfly wings. I can't tell you how much those presents meant to me, particularly as my parents never had much money for things like that."
    "Cool," Will said absently, not knowing where his father was going with this.
    "I must have been around nine when he brought me two white mice in a cage. My parents had never allowed me to have any pets, so I was over the moon. I stayed up late into the evening, just watching my mice, until my father packed me off to bed. When I woke up in the morning, first thing I did was to rush over to where I'd left the cage. It wasn't there. I couldn't understand it. I tore all over the house looking for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. My father came downstairs because I was upset and crying so much. He told me I must have had a dream because there never was a pair of white mice in a cage. He said I must have dreamt the whole thing. And my mother gave me the exact same story.
    "So they lied to you," Will put in.
    "Yes, they lied to me. My mother had a chronic fear of mice, and my new pets had to go. But I really believed what they'd told me, and it wasn't until years later that I put two and two together and figured out what they'd done. However, I didn't resent them for it. It was kinder to let me think it had all been some dream, rather than make me surrender my beloved mice." Dr. Burrows cleared his throat. "Will, your mother and I were going to tell you. But we wanted you to be old enough to deal with it, to understand what it meant. I promise you that." He met his son's eyes. "And now you know, does it really make any difference?"
    Will didn't answer straight away. "Yes, I think it does," he said eventually. "Deep down I always had this feeling that I didn't quite fit in with you and Mum, and certainly not ever with Rebecca.... I mean the Rebeccas. I tried to make myself fit... make myself feel I belonged... I suppose I forced myself to believe that I did... but that's not right, is it? Even if this stuff with my real family in the Colony and the Styx had never happened, I was still living a lie, wasn't I? Even if it was my own lie? Will took a breath to try to steady his voice. "And that wasn't right, was it?"
    "No, it wasn't, Will. We should have told you before," Dr. Burrows agreed. Then he changed the subject altogether. "We seem to have been walking upwards for a very long time."

    * * * * *

    "Well, the explosion's completely plugged it up," Martha said as she returned down the passage to Chester and Elliott. She looked at the girl who was sitting cross-legged on her stretcher, chewing on a piece of biltong made from dried spider-monkey meat, and sipping from a canteen.
    "Sorry," Elliott said, flicking her eyebrows apologetically. "I couldn't see any other way out."
    "No, you did the right thing," Martha assured her. "If it was a toss-up between who got us first -- the Brights or a Limiter -- I'd already put my money on the Limiter. He wasn't going to let us get away with our lives."
    "That bloody Rebecca twin we had with us," Chester growled, them made a pah sound. "I just knew she was lying through her teeth, but Will didn't want to know. The Styx are all foul