Tunnels 04, Closer

been sealed with explosives by our engineers. While we don't know which route you used to enter our world, we could find it if we were so minded, and seal it too."
    "There's no need for that," Rebecca Two confirmed. "Your secret is safe with us." Without pausing to take breath she continued, "But I need some help from you."
    "That depends--" the Chancellor began.
    "No, it doesn't depend on anything," Rebecca Two interrupted. "Prior to the invasion of Poland, we struck a deal with the German High Command. We furnished you with intel which was invaluable in achieving a number of military objectives throughout your European campaign. That intel didn't come cheap -- Styx lives were lost obtaining it. And the deal was -- how can I put it -- a two-way street. We delivered on our side, and in return we were promised a place at the top table if you won the war. Although you didn't, I'm calling in that debt right now."
    The Chancellor tried to read her dark eyes as he spoke. "You must forgive me, but this was all long before my time and, besides, none of the High Command made it to this world," he countered.
    The servant chose that moment to enter with a trolley of food, but the Chancellor waved him out of the room.
    Rebecca Two was staring coldly at the Chancellor. "Don't try to wheedle out of the deal. I'm not asking for much. I'm asking you to assist us in the search for something we want to recover... something that has been stolen from us. You owe the Styx. And when we collect on our favors, we do not expect to be disappointed. I'm not going to stoop to making threats, but you really don't want to cross us."
    The Chancellor's eyebrows had hiked up a little while Rebecca Two had been speaking, and now remained there.
    "The generals with whom you struck your deal are, I fear, long gone," the Chancellor said. "They were killed at the end of the war or faced the Nuremburg trials. But while we carry on Prussian military tradition for maintenance of order in New Germania, we are a very different beast. We do not persecute those races we persecuted before. We are not warmongers. We are not Nazis."
    Rebecca Two nodded at the bronze eagle emerging from the ruptured globe in the center of the table. "So what's that then? Window dressing? You found a nice, cushy place to hide away when your country was defeated, and you've gone soft?" she said scornfully.
    There was silence in the room, which lasted for several seconds.
    "yes, if you want to look at it like that," the Chancellor conceded. "We heard what happened to the mother country in the aftermath of the war, and we have no interest in what's going on back in the outer world. In the first months of this outpost, the Nazi party members who accompanied the helicopter convoys from Antarctica were -- how do you say? -- lost en route . The SS officers and all the technical people who were airlifted down here with their families wanted to forget the past and build new lives for themselves. Many had been at Stalingrad and on the Eastern Front, and after five years of pointless slaughter, they'd had their fill of death and destruction."
    "The lion that stopped roaring..." Rebecca Two smiled sourly. "So that's it -- you just ducked out and left your nation to it? You're weak and pathetic. You might as well call yourself New Geraniums ." She flicked her head insolently.
    The Chancellor adjusted his position in his chair as if he had no idea how to respond to this.
    "Well, we as a people, haven't given up. And if you don't honor your obligations to us, there will be serious consequences," Rebecca Two continued.
    The Limiter General spoke, his tone casual, almost conversational. "Comply with our request, or several thousand Limiters -- just like me -- will be sent down here to kill every single man, woman and child in this city."
    The Chancellor's eyebrows were now so high up his forehead they looked as though they would never come down again.
    Rebecca formed a tight fist and lowered it slowly to the table, then she took a breath and fastened her jet-black pupils on the Chancellor. "So you will provide us with men drawn from your very best regiment, and some transport. And once we have what we've come for, we will leave you in peace. Got that?"
    There was a pause, then the Chancellor nodded.
    The Styx girl and the Limiter General rose from the table at precisely the same moment.
    "You're leaving? What about our luncheon?" the Chancellor asked quietly.
    "We're going back to the compound. I