Tunnels 03, Freefall

as she closed her hand around the phials in her pocket, she found it impossible to relax.
    The situation was far too fantastic for that.
    It was as though her life had been ratcheted up into some hyper reality over the last six months. First he quiet existence had been capsized as her husband had taken off on his wild caper. Then, at Humphrey House, just as she felt she'd been waking from a deep slumber and had the chance to regain some measure of control over her destiny, both Will and her fake daughter -- or daughters -- had gone missing. She'd been cast into a situation as wild and improbable as the films she used to rent on DVD, and usually discarded before she'd watched them all the way through.
    2:58
    "Everything okay?" Drake's voice sounded from the tiny transmitter in her ear, as clear as if he was standing right beside her.
    "Yes," she answered as she reached the rough patch of tarmac on the apex of the hill. Strolling casually around the drinking fountain, she rechecked the lower ground from her elevated viewpoint. As she peered down the north side of the hill, a man in a skimpy vest and running shorts jogged past the dilapidated bandstand, next to which an elderly couple were standing. It all looked completely innocent. She raised her hand to her mouth as if she was touching her chin, and spoke into the microphone pinned inside her sleeve. "Looks all clear," she reported to Drake. "Nothing. Not a sausage."
    3:00
    "And it's the witching hour," she added.
    "Just keep your eyes peeled," he said.
    By the entrance to the Common, Drake was in a battered van along with Leatherman and two hired hands -- former soldiers from Leatherman's old regiment. On the floor of the van there were three black-and-white television monitors with wireless feeds from cameras rigged in the trees around the hill. Leatherman and his comrades were watching them carefully. Missing the racing on the other channel," one of the soldiers grumbled in phony regret, but his eyes were glued to the grainy picture of Mrs. Burrows on the screen nearest to him.
    Drake consulted his wristwatch. "3:02. Looks like a no-show," he said disappointedly.
    "Give it a little longer," Leatherman suggested. "Slowly slowly catchy monkey."
    Drake nodded. "Let the teams know we're running on," he said. Leatherman switched his handheld radio to a different frequency and communicated with the other soldiers in the dug-outs, as Drake went back to watching through the rear window of the van with his binoculars.
    Mrs. Burrows strolled very slowly around the drinking fountain. She heard a distant droning high above her. A passenger jet was advancing slowly across the sky, leaving a white-crayon trace behind it. I'd give anything to be on that , she thought wistfully.
    3:05
    A man in a bright red tracksuit shot along one of the lower paths on a racing bike. The elderly couple were on the move, making their way up the hill and towards Mrs. Burrows in shambling steps. She began to pay them more attention. The old woman was pushing a wheeled basket while the man seemed very doddery. He was hanging on to the old woman's arm and also leaning heavily on a walking stick in his other hand. The couple's progress was so labored that Mrs. Burrows crinkled up the side of her mouth. Hardly your typical murderous Styx.
    "Got a pair of old age pensioners heading my way. Otherwise as quiet as... as... as a very quiet place," Mrs. Burrows said into the microphone as she pretended to adjust her hair.
    She heard Drake's laugh in her earpiece. "Roger that," he said.
    "Leave my husband out of it," Mrs. Burrows replied immediately, chuckling outrageously as she got some of the tension out of her system.
    3:08
    A persistent fly alighted on her forehead, and she automatically swiped at it.
    She went to the opposite side of the fountain and glanced down the south side of the hill. The man and his dog had moved on from the lower path and in their place she could see someone else strolling along, but he was walking away from the hill. Then she sought out Drake's van. She could just about see the tinted window where she knew he'd be watching. Then she stepped sideways towards the east and looked at the two teenage girls, who were both still immersed in their books. The fly buzzed in her ear and she wafted it away. She went further around the fountain. The elderly couple were slowly but surely approaching, the man looking extremely frail, as if he would topple over if it wasn't for the support his