Tunnels 03, Freefall

be at your throat."
    "If he does, so help me, you're dead meat," Will said grimly, maneuvering her body so it shielded him from the cat.
    There was a sudden cry to Will's left and he saw the Limiter burst into action.
    "An angel!" Dr. Burrows exclaimed.
    Something large and white fell thrashing to the ground before the Limiter. With both hands on his spear, the Limiter repeatedly drove the point into the Bright until its movements ceased.
    Will caught Martha's eye again. Her plan was working -- the smell of her fresh blood was drawing the Brights like moths to a flame. There was another squeal and she spun around, firing a bolt. It swished into the darkness but the Bright was gone. It wasn't a perfect plan by any means -- the Brights were just as much a menace to her and the boys as they were to the Styx.
    There were more eerie squeals from the darkness of the void and dim lights streaked around like shooting stars.
    "It starts," Martha said under her breath.
    "Interesting pets you've got down here. I'd like one," Rebecca Two said, but she didn't sound quite so sure of herself now. "Perhaps we should conclude our exchange quickly, Will, and get out of the open?"
    There was a flurry of activity from the other Limiter, but this time the Bright was the victor. They all watched as the soldier was whisked off his feet by the creature, which had its barbed legs wrapped around the man's head. Creature and man simply vanished in a blur. The Limiter hadn't even had time to cry out. The only evidence that he'd been there was his spear, which toppled to the ground.
    There were a few seconds of astonished silence, then only Chester's voice was heard.
    "That evens out the teams a little," he said.
    "Very funny, fat boy," Rebecca Two snarled through her screwed-up mouth. "When I get Topsoil again, I'll be sure to pay your mum and dad a visit... in person."
    "Er... I... no..." Chester gulped, the blood draining from his face.
    "We don't have time for this," Martha warned as she glanced heavenwards, her face anxious. "Do it, Will. Do the exchange," she urged him.
    "Are you sure?" Will asked her.
    "Yes," she confirmed. "The Styx need me alive. I'll be fine."
    Will knew that none of them had much chance if they remained where they were, not with the Brights on the rampage.
    "All Right, Rebecca Two," he yelled. "Let my dad come over to me here, and Martha can come to you."
    "No way. Martha stays exactly where she is. I'll come to her," Rebecca Two barked. "You can collect Dr. Buckwheat from here. Got that?"
    "How do I know you won't just open fire on us?" Will asked.
    "Because we don't have two rifles and a crossbow like you do, meat head," Rebecca Two jeered.
    Checking that the remaining Limiter was sufficiently far away and not about to ambush them, Will nodded.
    "Right," Rebecca Two announced. "Musical chairs. Let's all begin walking -- nice and slow."
    Rather reluctantly, Will relinquished his grip on Rebecca One, who shook her head to straighten out her hair, then glowered at Will.
    He glowered back at her. "I should never have bothered to save your life," he fumed.
    Knowing that he'd have to take Elliott with him, Chester was just turning to pick up the stretcher when something spun straight between his legs. A black canister rolled over the ground towards Dr. Burrows and Rebecca Two, but came to a stop in the middle of the cavern. Will immediately recognized what it was. It was one of the explosives Drake and Elliott used in the Deeps. But this was a hell of a big one, the size of a can of paint.
    "It's a twenty-pound charge -- with a twenty-second fuse. And while I was about it, I primed all the others," Elliott said quite calmly, throwing her rucksack on the ground beside her. She was sitting up on the stretcher, and looking very much herself again. During the proceedings she'd freed herself from her bindings, and everybody had been too preoccupied to notice as she'd retrieved her rucksack full of munitions from the end of her stretcher.
    Will and Chester stared at her, dumbstruck.
    "Sixteen seconds... BANG!" she said to them, throwing her arms out demonstratively.
    "No!" Will yelled, thinking that the fever must have loosened a couple of her screws. "Why've you done that?"
    "Because they're planning to kill all of us anyway. I heard them say so," Elliott replied.
    Will exchanged glances with Chester and was just about to open his mouth to speak, when the other boy go there first.
    "But... how can you know what they're