Tunnels 03, Freefall

then discovered that the platform, still edged with the white line, turned a corner. "Hurry up, Dad! Come and look at this!" he yelled. Dr. Burrows caught up with him and, side by side, they began to make their way down the new stretch.
    Then Will pointed his lantern at the way ahead. There was a lighter patch there, and as they came closer to it they saw a definite shape.
    Will held the circle of light steady.
    "What is that?" Dr. Burrows asked, with bated breath. He and Will froze. There was a suggestion of something regular over by the wall -- evidently a building of some description. Dr. Burrows immediately stormed towards it.
    As the structure loomed out of the darkness, Will wasn't so quick to follow. The idea suddenly popped into his head that stumbling across something like this might not be such good news.
    "Hey, Dad," Will shouted weakly, as he remembered Cal's description of the Bunker in the Deeps. Although Will hadn't seen it for himself, he recalled that it too was made from concrete, and it occurred to him that this place could also have something to do with the Styx. Maybe it was one of their outposts. In the same instant he realized how improbable that was. Martha had been emphatic that the Styx's presence didn't extend this far down. Will shook his head, dismissing the concern. No, this wasn't something the Styx had put here.
    "What is it, Will?" Dr. Burrows finally responded.
    "Nothing," Will said, as he hurried to catch up with his father. As he approached the building, he saw it consisted of a single story in which there was a row of square windows, ten in total, and beyond these a door.
    Will was a that the door in an instant. It was painted grey-blue, with the occasional brown streak where rust had begun to etch into its surface. And in the center of the door there was a wheel, which was clearly some sort of opening mechanism. Dr. Burrows hung his luminescent orb around his neck and tried to rotate the wheel. He swore as it refused to move.
    "You'll have to help me," he mumbled to Will, who clipped his lantern to his jacket, and joined his father in trying to turn the mechanism.
    After several attempts, they gave up.
    'Damn!" Dr. Burrows exclaimed, then drove his heel into the wheel several time in an attempt to loosen it.
    "Hang on," Will said as he spotted a length of metal tubing lying at the foot of the wall. He snatched it up and stuck in through the spokes of the wheel.
    "A lever! Good thinking!" Dr. Burrows praised him, as they leant on it with all their weight. As the wheel turned, the tubing slipped from the wheel and fell onto the floor, filling the cavern with clanking echoes. Will went to retrieve it.
    "Don't bother," Dr. Burrows said. "I think we've got it now." He grunted as he rotated the wheel. There was a solid clunk as it reached the limit of its revolution. "Open Sesame," he announced and heaved on the door. It swung out a little until its base grated loudly on the concrete platform. "This is a hell of a door -- it's nearly two feet thick!" Although he continued to heave, the door wouldn't move any further. "Let's get all this out of the way," he suggested, kicking at the pieces of rock under the edge of the door.
    Will helped him, sweeping aside the larger debris with his boot and then getting down on his knees to brush the gravel away with his hands.
    "That should do it. Let's have another go," Dr. Burrows suggested. There was enough of a gap for him to poke his fingers inside the door and get a good grip on it. "Ready... steady... go!" Dr. Burrows shouted as he used all his strength to yank on the door. With Will simultaneously pulling on the handle, the door opened a little further, providing sufficient room for them to squeeze through, which they did with breathless anticipation. Stepping inside, they found a rectangular chamber around ten by twenty meters. There was a small campaign table surrounded by some folding chairs.
    "Hey, Dad, get a load of this!" Will shouted excitedly. On the wall directly opposite the door there was a complicated looking panel of dials and switches. "What on earth is it?"
    "I haven't the foggiest, but that door certainly did its job and kept the damp out. There's no sign of any corrosion at all," Dr. Burrows noted as he and his son's gaze fell on the five large breaker switches. The words Main Power Console were written above them.
    Dr. Burrows began to whistle in his usual, atonal way, which usually meant he was deep in thought, then he