Tunnels 04, Closer

could trust."
    Eddie groaned as Drake increased the pressure on his windpipe.
    "I thought I'd found someone I could work with. A friend."
    As Eddie slipped into unconsciousness, Drake laid him on the ground.
    Straightening up, Drake reached for the radio unit on his belt and switched the frequency over. "Chester, can you hear me?"
    "Yes," Chester confirmed from the opening in the cavern wall above, where he'd been watching Drake through his rifle scope. The boy was obviously shaken after firing on the Limiter, and spoke so quickly Drake could hardly understand him. "Was that okay? That Limiter was about to take a shot at you -- I couldn't just let that happen. And what was that with Eddie? I saw what you did to him."
    "Just cool it -- you did well -- everything's under control." Drake checked the time. "We need to get through the Labyrinth and into the South Cavern before daybreak. I want to catch the Colony asleep." He used his rifle scope to locate where Chester's head was peeping out from the vegetation over the opening. "Send me down the weapons first," he said. "Then lower the Bergens. And, whatever you do, be gentle with them."
    "Yup... okay," Chester acknowledged, then glanced at the pair of loaded Bergens on the ground beside him. He'd been forced to make two trips all the way down from the Topsoil cellar, because there was no way he could have carried both of the rucksacks at once. They were too heavy for that.
    Drake regarded Eddie, sprawled at his feet. "I must be going soft... letting you live," he muttered as he aimed his rifle and shot a dart into the Styx's arm. "but, in any case, there's no way you'd let me do what I intend to do next," he told the unconscious man.

    * * * * *

    As they quickly made there way around the EternalCity, Chester told Drake how his mother had walked out of the hotel. Drake assured him that he'd been right to tell his father to wait at the warehouse. But he could offer little in the way of comfort about Mrs. Rawls' plight, except that he would look into it the moment they were Topsoil again. And Drake was reluctant to talk about what had happened with Eddie, except that he stood in the way of the second phase of the operation, and had to be 'removed from the equation,' as Drake put it.
    Now, as they lingered on a muddy bank in the far reaches of the cavern, Chester shivered. "I'm so glad we didn't have to go through there. Spooky-looking place," he said. They were in a slightly elevated position and Chester could see over the city wall and into the EternalCity itself. He shivered again and made a ghostly Whoooo noise as he gazed at it. Even though he knew the inhabitants were long gone, the buildings had such a strong aura of power and menace that they made him feel distinctly uneasy. It suddenly dawned on Chester that he'd been so preoccupied with his mother's disappearance, he hadn't given his own situation much thought. Drake refused to tell him what he was planning to do in the Colony, but it was bound to be dangerous. Chester didn't even know if he himself was going to make it through the day and see his father again.
    "Come on, kid! Snap out of it! What are you daydreaming about?" Drake's voice crackled in his ear. "I was speaking to you."
    "Sorry," Chester said, as he turned to see Drake waiting for him at the mouth of a cave.
    Drake swept his hand into the opening as if he was a showman. "Step this way, sir. You're about to experience one of the most complex mazes in the unknown world."
    "I am?" Chester swallowed, hurrying over to join him. "But how do you know the way through?"
    "Your mate, Will -- he gave me the schematic his Uncle Tam drew for him. That, combined with several extremely helpful Limiter maps in Eddie's basement, has all gone onto this piece of..." Drake whisked something dramatically into Chester's limited field of vision, "bang-up-to-date technology." Chester caught the dim light coming from the iPod screen.
    "What? We're going to watch some music videos now?" he chuckled, his mood lifting.
    "No, not until this is all done and dusted. You see, a compass is useless in the Labyrinth due to the iron deposits and, of course, GPS is out of the question, so I had to get creative. I put all the maps together on this, then linked it to a pedometer. I even get spoken directions over my earpiece. So it should be a cinch to get to the other side, but we're going to have to move like greased lightning. I hope you've got your running shoes on."
    "Oh, great,"