Tunnels 03, Freefall

his speech was clipped with anger. "That twin put us through hell... and you just let her off, like it was nothing."
    "I haven't let her off," Will countered. "It's just--"
    "It's just what? " Chester said, growing even more heated. "Come on, Will! You're acting like a... I don't know... like a complete wimp!"
    "No, I'm not," Will objected, doing his best to keep his voice even.
    "Well, I think you're making the biggest mistake of your life." Chester looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, one of them anyway."
    "Look, Chester, it's like this," Will said, as he massaged his forehead, trying to alleviate the throbbing headache that had come on after the incident. "It would have been the easiest thing in the world for me to let you and Martha kill her."
    "Yeah, so why didn't you?" Chester challenged him.
    "Because afterwards you'd have regretted it. Haven't you had a bellyful of all the killing? If we'd finished off the twin we'd be no different from her and all the other Styx. We can't let ourselves sink that low."
    "Don't you dare compare us with them," Chester said, outraged. "We're the good guys."
    "Not if we shoot twelve-year-old girls in the face, we're not," Will said.
    Chester clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Aren't you forgetting that she's bloody dangerous? What if her sister's outside that barricade, with a soddin' army of Limiters? What if they're waiting for a sign from her before they storm this place and kill us all? What then?" Chester snorted through his nostrils like an irate bull, although he was talking without shouting now.
    "Why wait? They could do it any time they wanted," Will reasoned.
    Chester waved his hand through the air as if brushing Will's answer aside, then he changed tack. "And as for sparing the Rebecca twin, what's that expression? Live by the sword--"
    "--die by the sword," Martha interjected as she came onto the porch and deposited a metal plate on the floor by Will. "Here's your prisoner's food." As she promptly returned inside, Will noticed she had her crossbow slung over her back. It was clear that she was as nervous as Chester about more Styx showing up.
    Will regarded the plate but didn't make a move towards it. "Don't you think I want revenge too, Chester? For God's sake, look at what they did to Cal, Uncle Tam, my real mum, and Granny Macaulay. And if they'd looked after my dad, he might still be alive today. But shooting the twin isn't... isn't the answer." He thumped the arm of Chester's chair. "You're not listening to me. Look at me, will you?"
    "What?" Chester asked, as he met Will's resolute gaze.
    "You've got to believe me when I say this -- I have not forgiven her . Not for a single bloody second."
    Chester gave a small nod.
    Will got to his feet and collected the plate of food. "And you never know -- perhaps she can help us. Perhaps she knows a way out of the Pore -- so we can get Elliott some medicine. If we'd just killed the twin, she wouldn't have been able to tell us."
    "You might have a point," Chester conceded. "So ask her for three tickets on the express train back to Highfield, will you?" He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, as he added, "First Class."
    "I'll do that." Will was so relieved that he and Chester hadn't fallen out over the situation. The last thing he wanted was for them to be at loggerheads again -- he'd had enough of that in the Deeps to last him a lifetime. "And Chester, I'm sorry I pushed you like that and grabbed the rifle away from you."
    "Sure," Chester said.
    Will started down the front steps, then turned to his friend.
    "By the way, did you just burn your gob on that tea?" he said, breaking into a grin.
    "Get out of here!" Chester laughed.

    * * * * *

    Rebecca was being kept in the dry-log store, the sturdiest of the outbuildings at the rear of the shack. Martha was taking absolutely no chances and had supervised Will as he patted the twin down for any weapons, then placed shackles around her ankles, each secured with a massive padlock. As if this wasn't enough, Martha looped a heavyweight length of chain around the manacles and one of the huge beams at the four corners of the shack -- there was no way the girl was going anywhere.
    "Twins," Will said under his breath as he carried the plate over to the hut. Even though he'd seen it with his own eyes at the top of the Pore, he had to keep reminding himself there were actually two Rebeccas. They'd been taking turns to spy on him, one on, one off, for all those years in