Tunnels 04, Closer

hadn't done anything when his father had tried it, Will selected the next along and swung the handle down. As they met the contacts sparked, and for an instant the room was illuminated by a flash of blue illumination, then the bulkhead lights flared into life.
    "Gah!" Will exclaimed. "Forgot it was so bright." But despite the brilliance, he still managed to flip down the bank of switches that controlled the lights outside in the harbor. "Dad said the whole place is powered from turbines in the river," he informed Elliott.
    "Careful," she hissed, nodding toward the corner of the room.
    Will glanced at the meter-thick blast door. "It's been left open too," he noted, moving toward it.
    "Hold it," Elliott whispered. "That looks wet."
    Will sought out what she was peering at. On the way over to the door was a small, grimy-looking object, with gray smear marks on the concrete floor all around it.
    As Bartleby inched toward it, Will couldn't understand why he was acting so nervously. "Dad and I certainly didn't leave anything there," Will informed Elliott in a whisper, "but it's just a dirty rag, isn't it?"
    While the girl kept her rifle trained on the blast door, Will went over and prodded the object with the toecap of his boot. "Yes, a rag," he pronounced, then kicked it over. "No, watch out -- because it is dangerous... very dangerous!" Will exploded, barely able to speak he was laughing so much. "Look at it -- that's no rag -- it's some really dirty underpants! Chester must have dropped them here!"
    As Elliott came alongside him, she saw what was unmistakably a pair of filthy and rather threadbare Y-fronts.
    Then the three of them, Will, Elliott and Bartleby, tiptoed through the blast door and into the passageway beyond. It was some fifteen meters high, and brightly lit by the strip lights down the middle of the ceiling. Will threw a glance at the radio operator's booth, assuring himself it was still there. He was intending to pay it a visit later.
    He indicated the next cabin along. "You'll love what's in there," he said, making no effort to keep his voice down. "It's the armory. It's--"
    "Bartleby's still acting squirrely. And there's a strange smell," Elliott warned him sharply.
    Will sniffed several times. "Detergent -- that's all," he decided. "Probably this," he added, rubbing his foot on a damp trail which ran down the otherwise spotless linoleum of the passageway. "Chester or Martha must have dragged something through here."
    But Elliott was right -- Bartleby was still behaving strangely as they edged forward, although Will put it down to his being in unfamiliar surroundings, filled with new odors.
    By the doorway at the end of the passageway there were some food packets that had been shredded into small pieces.
    " Always leave a place as you'd wish others to find it ," Will said somewhat disapprovingly, as he quoted Dr. Burrows' maxim.
    "Your father?" Elliott asked, recognizing that the boy's words hadn't sounded his own.
    "My father," Will confirmed. "But I'm surprised Martha and Chester would make all this mess."
    "There's something else in here," Elliott whispered, wrinkling her nose. "There's a smell that--"
    "Nah, it's fine," Will insisted. "You worry too much. I keep telling you -- no one else would come down here. It's a very long way from the Colony or the Deeps, miles from anything."
    "But don't you think the White Necks might've been the teensiest bit interested how you and the Doc made it back to Highfield? And what if Chester or Martha have been caught and Darklit -- they'll have told them everything, including all about this place," Elliott reasoned. "And what about your mother? What if the Styx really Darklit her?"
    No, not my mother -- Drake made sure Dad and I didn't say too much about it in front of her, especially about where the river came up under the airfield," Will replied. "But I suppose you've got a point."
    They entered the main area, which was filled with ranks of bunk beds. It was the size of a football pitch, and around the edges there were further rooms. With all the lights on, they could quickly see no one was in there.
    "What did I tell you?" Will said to Elliott. "Nobody home. Nobody home. Come with me." He broke into a run, cutting straight through the area of bunk beds. Elliott trailed cautiously after him, her rifle still at her shoulder. As she caught up with him on the other side of the floor, he pointed at a light-blue door with a number stenciled on it. "The showers are in