Tunnels 03, Freefall

dream -- a girl -- but I don't know who she was. I never saw here face."
    "Elliott?" Drake inquired gently.
    "Hah!" Will exclaimed. "That's hardly likely."
    "I wouldn't say that. She's very fond of you, you know."
    Will laughed. "Well, she's got a funny way of showing it."
    "That's girls -- women -- for you," Drake said, joining in with Will's laughter. "I now you fell out big time after that patrol on the Great Plain, but she respected you for standing up to her."
    Just then, Will and Drake heard raised voices behind them.
    Mrs. Burrows was marching towards the tree, Dr. Burrows trailing behind her. She was shouting stridently. "Will! Will, come here! We need to speak to you."
    Before he went to meet them, Will whispered to Drake, "Looks like I'm wanted."
    "It's nice to be wanted," Drake replied with a nod.
    His parents came to a stop under the other side of the tree. Mrs. Burrows' face was flushed and angry, while Dr. Burrows just looked at his feet, browbeaten.
    "Your father and I have talked things over, and we've decided we're not going back to how we were before," Mrs. Burrows declared.
    "No, we're not ," Dr. Burrows said emphatically, still examining his feet.
    "Okay," Will said, wondering where this was leading.
    "Your father thinks he has unfinished business underground, and he's going to return there as soon as he can -- by himself, that is."
    "No--!" Will began, but his mother spoke over him.
    "And we've decided that you're going to stay with me," she announced.
    "Forget it," Will growled. "I'm going back for Chester and Elliott. You can't tell me what to do, any more! You've got no idea what--"
    "We can find somewhere well away from these Styx people. Maybe down on the coast... Brighton would--"
    "No way!" Will screamed. "Brighton? Are you on drugs or something? They'll find us there in two seconds."
    Mrs. Burrows bristled. "Don't you dare talk to--!"
    This time it was Drake's turn to interrupt. "It's not quite as simple as that, Mrs. Burrows." He touched the top of his head in what was clearly some kind of signal, and a man stepped out from the hedgerow at the bottom of the field. He advanced towards them in rapid, easy strides.
    "Who's he? And what's he doing sneaking around here?" Mrs. Burrows demanded.
    "He's been with us all the time, and you can call him Leatherman," Drake said.
    "I don't care if he's the King of the Faeries," she snorted. "Where's he from?"
    "He's originally from Fiji. He was in my unit for a while."
    "What -- an army unit or something?" Mrs. Burrows hissed, her lip curling viciously as she became increasingly angry. Will took a step away from her, worried that she might be about to start throwing punches again.
    Drake shook his head. "I suppose you could say that we worked for the Government, in a sort of unofficially official capacity, until the relationship was disrupted by our dear friends, the Styx. That's all you need to know," he said flatly.
    The man drew alongside Drake and stood as if waiting for an order. A full head taller than Drake, he looked about as solid as the trunk of the old oak tree. His short-cut hair was black, and he had a well-trimmed moustache. His skin was burnished, as if he spent all his life in the open, and as Will thought to himself how much it resembled old, tanned hide, the wry suggestion occurred to him that his name was very apt. The man was dressed in a knee-length Barbour coat and jeans, and as he reacted to a nod from Drake and opened his coat, Will caught a glimpse of a stubby looking weapon suspended at his side.
    "Assault rifle?" the boy asked.
    The man paused to give Will a friendly smile. "Sawn-off 12-gauge," he said, tugging something from an inside pocket. It was some sort of camera.
    "You were saying," Mrs. Burrows snapped at Drake, clearly not the slightest bit impressed by the newcomer's abrupt appearance or the fact he was armed.
    Drake took the camera from Leatherman and flipped open the small screen on the side.
    "So, tell me, why can't I take Will off somewhere, away from all this nonsense?" Mrs. Burrows asked impatiently.
    "Because of this," Drake said, holding the screen so she could see it.
    "Ben? Is that Ben?" she asked. Grabbing the camera from Drake, she peered at the screen as the piece of green-tinted film played back. "It is -- you've been snooping on Ben! You've got no right to do that!"
    Will managed to see the screen, although his mother's hands were shaking as she held the camera. It wasn't only Mrs. Burrows' friend