Tunnels 03, Freefall

"Come on, will you!"
    Dr. Burrows straightened up. "What's the big hurry all of a sudden? We've been away more than a week. Your friends will be long gone by the time we get down there."
    It was very clear that Dr. Burrows couldn't care less about Chester, Elliott or Martha. Will didn't respond to this, instead showing his frustration by cocking his Sten gun, which he'd decided to use as his main firearm because it was shorter and much less unwieldy than the rifle strapped across his back. And he also thought it looked the part with his military get up.
    "There's no hurry," Dr. Burrows said again. As he turned his attention back to the mineral deposit and began to whistle in that annoying way of his, Will was only just able to keep his temper.
    "Have fun with your electrum," he said through gritted teeth, kicking out his legs as he stormed down the seam. Noticing he was passing the dark mouth of a side tunnel, he checked the aerosol of insect repellent he'd secured to his upper arm with duct tape. What with this, Drake's headset and the sub-machine gun, he felt he was ready for anything, with or without his father at his side.
    "Hey, Will! Wait for me!" Dr. Burrows yelled, running to catch up with his son.

31

    "I haven't been here for years and years," Mrs. Burrows remarked as she and Drake went under the metal arch at the entrance to Highfield Common.
    A recent addition to the park, the arch was achingly modern -- a rainbow-shaped span of burnished stainless-steel tubing, over which ivy had been encouraged to grow. The combination of the ivy and steel worked up to a point, although the effect was rather marred by the numerous pairs of worn-out trainers with their laces tied together, which had been lobbed over its vertex. And the pairs of knickers displayed next to the trainers only added to the overall impression of seediness.
    But Mrs. Burrows didn't notice any of this, her mind somewhere else as distant memories were rekindled. "I used to wheel my kids around here in their pushchairs when they were small," she said. Then, as the realization hit her, her head came up suddenly and she stared at Drake. "I used to push a young Styx around. No, worse even than that, I used to push two of them around, AND I HADN'T THE SLIGHTEST IDEA!" she exclaimed.
    "Easy, Celia," Drake warned her. "We don't want to attract attention." He indicated the gravel path which led up the hill before them, and they climbed it at a leisurely rate, passing on the way a couple of young boys trying to untangle a kite. "Not enough wind for that," Drake commented, and he and Mrs. Burrows instinctively glanced up above where the clouds appeared to be fixed in the clear blue sky.
    "It's funny how you only really appreciate things," Mrs. Burrows said, lowering her eyes from the sky and drinking in the lushness of the grass and the trees, "when you think you're going to lose them." She turned her head in the direction of
    Broadlands Avenue
    , where the rooftops of the houses were just visible over the curve of the hill and the intervening trees. "Or you've already lost them."
    At the top of the hill, there was a roughly-laid area of tarmac, in the center of which a Victorian granite drinking fountain stood. Drake went over to it and pressed the tarnished brass button, which would have once produced a jet of sparkling water from the spout in the middle of the recessed bowl. But now nothing happened; no water came into the bowl, where there was just a dark mat of rotting leaves and a crumpled-up Coke can.
    "So, about this time tomorrow, I'll be up here waiting for the Styx," Mrs. Burrows said as she glanced at her watch. She frowned heavily as she scanned the area at the bottom of the hill. "Are we really safe up here, right now? They might be watching, and decide to grab us or something?"
    "Unlikely," Drake said. "Too many witnesses."
    "But still..." Mrs. Burrows began.
    "Relax. They know we wouldn't be stupid enough to have the phials on us, so they won't try anything. Not today, anyway. And it's important that you get the lie of the land, so you feel ready." Crossing his arms, he leant back against the water fountain. "Don't react to what I'm about to tell you, but Leatherman has already got his men in place. They're in the clumps of bushes around the base of this hill."
    "They are?" Mrs. Burrows said dubiously.
    "Yes, ten of them," Drake confirmed.
    "Mrs. Burrows gave the bushes a casual glance. "Men there? Now? How can they be? I can't see