Tunnels 03, Freefall

more than impulsive actions in the average person."
    Will frowned, not understanding what he meant.
    "More than short bursts of behavioral change -- inducing a person to do something in response to a keyword, or, in your case, Will, when you are confronted by a steep drop."
    Will still wasn't sure what he was talking about. "But can I really stop it?"
    "Sure you can. It sounds as though you only had a few weeks of conditioning, so with any luck I'll be able to reverse it. Others might not be so fortunate and their programming is so deeply ingrained that nothing can be done for them." He took a deep breath. "We're going to stay up here for a while," he said. "Can you handle that?"
    "I think so," the boy replied.

    * * * * *

    They waited for half an hour, Drake perched by the edge of the roof and occasionally glancing at his watch as darkness gathered in the sky above them.
    Then he abruptly beckoned to Dr. Burrows to come over.
    "There's your wife," Drake said, pointing down at a road that joined the corner of the square.
    "Celia?" Dr. Burrows said, hastily getting up from the lead flat.
    "What the hell's she doing here?" Will asked as he stood alongside Drake.
    "See that house three in from the end?" Drake said, glancing at the terrace on the opposite side of the square.
    "Yes," Will confirmed.
    "Your mother's renting a flat on the first floor. She's taken a temporary job to pay for it."
    "Job?" Will spat as though he'd been stung, his face a picture of incredulity. "You're saying my mum's got herself a job? "
    "Yes," Drake replied. "And she goes to the gym every morning... quite the reformed character, as if she's trying to turn over a new leaf. She's also been researching Martineau and Highfield's history at the local archive, to see if there's any connection with your disappearances. She's thorough, I can tell you. That' s why the Colony is keeping tabs on her."
    "Oh, so you're saying the Styx are after her now," Dr. Burrows snorted. He and Will watched as she came nearer, noticing that she wasn't alone as she turned into the square. "But she's with someone! A man!" Dr. Burrows said, becoming quite agitated.
    "Yes, and he's not to be trusted," Drake informed him.
    Dr. Burrows was frantic. "I need to speak to her! I have to go to her!"
    "I'm sorry, Doc, you can't do that. Not right now," Drake told him in no uncertain terms.
    But Dr. Burrows had opened his mouth and yelled "Celia," before Drake, in the blink of an eye, had bundled him away from the edge of the roof. As Dr. Burrows tried to fight him off, Drake flipped him onto his back in a single fluid move, putting his head in a lock so he couldn't make a sound.
    "Bloody fool!" Drake scowled, and snapped an order at Will. "See if anyone heard that! And if you do anything silly like jumping, I'll kill you myself!"

    * * * * *

    "Did you hear that?"
    Mrs. Burrows had been about to unlock the door, but was now scanning the road around the square and the uncared-for garden in the center.
    "Hear what?" Ben Wilbrahams asked.
    "I thought I heard... I thought someone shouted my name," she said, a bemused expression on her face. "It sounded like..."
    "Well, I didn't hear anything," Ben Wilbrahams said unequivocally. "Other than the wind."
    Mrs. Burrows shrugged and inserted the key in the lock to let them in. As Ben Wilbrahams followed her, she was unaware of the tall thin men flooding into the square, and the activity on the rooftop across from her.

    * * * * *

    Any problems Will had had with heights were put aside as soon as he saw what was happening below.
    "Trouble," Will called back to Drake. "Looks like at least four Styx coming our way, and fast."
    "You'd better behave yourself, Doc," Drake warned as he released Dr. Burrows, then joined Will at the front of the roof.
    As Will craned his neck to see into the corners of the square, he felt rather than heard something land close to his feet. He looked down. Where the angle of the roof dipped forty-five degrees towards the guttering at the very edge, there was a neat hole in the surface of the lead. The same thing happened again, but this time he was looking down at the roof as another hole appeared next to the first.
    "Er, Drake," he said, pointing.
    Drake reacted in an instant. "Sniper!" he hissed, quickly pulling Will back with him.
    Huffing resentfully, Dr. Burrows had gotten up and was just about to give Drake a piece of his mind when there was a sharp sound that made him flinch. Inches from his face, one of the