Tunnels 04, Closer

didn't reply as he fished in a pocket and dropped a couple of keys on the bench. "These are for the warehouse and the flat." Then he took out a pen. "You'll also need the code to let yourself out of here and back upstairs." He began to write a sequence of numbers on the corner of the plan that had been of so much interest to Drake. "But take care -- if you get it wrong, the system will detonate and--"
    "Don't bother. I memorized the sequence as you were inputting it," Drake told him.
    Eddie began to walk away. "Thought as much," he said, without turning his head.

7

    On the vertical cliff face, Will was hauling himself up the vines behind Elliott. They'd already climbed a good distance and although their hands occasionally slipped as the leaves came away, they weren't overly concerned. Life in the lower-gravity environment had become second nature to them, and they both knew if they were to fall it wouldn't be as disastrous as it would have been on the surface.
    "Here we are," Elliott announced, then seemed to disappear into the vines themselves. Will went in after her, pushing through the wooded stems.
    He peered around the space he found himself in, some ten meters in width and several times that in length. A green-tinged light filtered through the vines over the entrance, and the air felt cool. "How on earth did you find this? It's a cave!" he exclaimed.
    "There you go again -- stating the obvious," she said, with mock weariness.
    Will sighed. "With all the time you're spending round my dad, you're beginning to sound like him."
    She flashed him a smile and he smiled back, then he went over to inspect a pile of fruit that he'd noticed at the rear of the cave. Elliott had obviously begun to stockpile food in case of an emergency. "You've been busy," he said. "And you've laid in some meat, too." He was regarding the hock she'd suspended from the roof.
    "Yes, and I'm hoping the ants won't find it up there," she said.
    "Fat chance of that -- they get everywhere," Will remarked. His father called them Seafu or Safari ants, and they were a constant nuisance. Once they'd discovered where food was stored, they would form red convoys several centimeters thick, which were quite capable of stripping most of the flesh from the carcass of a young gazelle or a small mammal over a single night.
    "All that's left is to make sure we've got enough water," Elliott said, as Will came to the heap of animal skins and lengths of wood she'd brought into the cave. "And put some sleeping cots together from that stuff," she added.
    "You can always ask me to help, you know," Will offered, impressed at how much she'd already done.
    She shook her head, focusing on the ground. "No, don't worry. I know you have your work cut out with the Doc."
    There was the slightest hint of disappointment in her voice. Despite the fact that he found Elliott so difficult to read, Will picked up on it immediately.
    There had been numerous occasions when he'd been torn between working with his father or spending time with Elliott, but the tyrannical Dr. Burrows always won the day. And each time as Will watched Elliott walk away, leaving him to continue with his drawings of the carved inscriptions on the pyramid or scrubbing the dirt from some minor artifact, he'd stare after her, yearning to go with her. These were opportunities, moments, days, which would never present themselves again, and sometimes he felt as if all the impatience and frustration inside him would make him implode. But, each time, he would say nothing and buckle down to the tasks Dr. Burrows had set him, furious with himself and unhappy with his lot.
    "Your father always has so much to do," Elliott added as she gave Will a passing glance.
    "Yes," he agreed, his voice downbeat. But then Will made an effort to lighten the mood between them. There was no way he was going to let his father spoil what little time they did have together. "And this place is a perfect hideaway if we need one. You're just brilliant."
    Elliott picked up a roll of animal hide which had fallen from the top of the heap and put it back where it belonged. "Thanks. And just remember to use the same route in or out of here. Otherwise you'll leave a scent trail."
    "I knew it -- that was why you took us through the stream," Will said, lifting a foot and planting it back down on the rock floor with a squelching noise. "But don't we need to be further away from the base camp than this?" he thought out loud, as he went back to the