Tunnels 05 - Spiral

reinforced Complex wall
and
the mountainside.”
    “You boys do like to use brute force, don’t you?” Parry said, then thought for a moment. “OK, you’d all better follow me,” he decided, giving Sergeant Finch a nod.
    As Parry directed, they collected sledgehammers, coal chisels, and mallets on the way. The elevators were out of action, so the Colonel carried Sergeant Finch on his back, while Drake and Sweeney hauled his mobility scooter down the stairs.
    Once they were all on Level 6, Parry led them past the water tanks and to the arsenal at the very end of the floor. He strode through one of the aisles between the racking shelves until he reached a large metal cabinet against the wall.
    “Several of you get to work and move any explosives and incendiaries within a twenty-foot radius of here. Last thing we want is to ignite anything with a stray spark,” Parry said with a wave of his hand at the shelves. Then he supervised his son and Sweeney as they slid the metal cabinet out of the way. The wall behind appeared to be no different from anywhere else, but Parry took up a coal chisel and mallet and began to tap away at it.
    It quickly became apparent that it wasn’t just a solid slab of reinforced concrete. He’d located an area at the bottom of the wall that gave off a different sound when he chipped at it. And he was working his way vertically up the wall when he stopped to address Will. “You’re good at this sort of stuff, laddie. Help yourself to some tools and find the other side of the doorway,” he said, pointing four feet or so along the base of the wall.
    Will found that there was a wooden batten buried just below the surface of the concrete, and it didn’t take much effort to uncover it. As the two of them continued to work, a rectangle the size of a pair of double doors gradually revealed itself. Once they were finished, they both stood back.
    “Open Sesame,” Parry said. “That’s our way in.”
    Having checked that the surrounding shelves were clear, Parry turned to everyone. “Now we break down the concrete in the doorway.”
    “What’s in there?” Drake said. “An explosives cache?”
    Ignoring the question, Parry swung a sledgehammer at a bottom corner of the rectangle.
    Sergeant Finch wasn’t so reticent. “Yes, the secondary store is ’idden there,” he said. “A top secret store.”
    “And the rest,” Parry muttered under his breath as he kept swinging. Both Sweeney and the Colonel joined in. The concrete was gradually yielding, but not as quickly as Will had thought it would.
    “Can I have a go?” someone asked, striding into the arsenal.
    “Chester!” Will burst out, a big smile on his face. Elliott was following several paces behind, her expression one of concern.
    “About time I did something,” Chester said as the Colonel passed his sledgehammer over and the boy set to work.
    Sweeney was the first to break through, and stopped to take a look.
    “No, carry on,” Parry said. “Better that we clear it completely.”
    Some twenty minutes later the Colonel was attacking the last piece of concrete at the top of the opening. After it crashed to the floor, Parry used his flashlight to show the way. They all filed in behind him.
    “There’s more than enough here for what we need,” Drake said, taking in the sheer number of wooden crates as Parry flicked his flashlight beam over them. “But this is nothing fancy — just your plain vanilla postwar explosive stock. So what was with all that melodrama earlier?”
    “The best way to hide something is to hide it in something already hidden,” Parry announced as he spun around to face everybody. “You cannot under any circumstances breathe a word of what you are about to learn — not to anybody.” He drew himself up to his full height. “I am now going to ask you each to give your consent that, under the Defense of the Realm Act 1973, as revised 1975 and 1976, that you irrevocably and unreservedly yield to the powers contained within the act.” Parry then spoke their names in turn.
    “Drake?”
    “Whatever all that means, yes,” Drake said.
    “Finch?”
    “Yes, Commander.”
    “Colonel Bismarck — you are hereby granted full British nationality. I need your answer.”
    “Can Parry do that?” Will whispered to Chester as the Colonel indicated that he agreed.
    “And, likewise, Eddie the Styx, you are hereby granted full citizenship of this country. Do you agree?”
    “Yes, sir,” Eddie