Tunnels 05 - Spiral

in the process, sealing their way out and negating the whole exercise. There was no way of closing the blast doors to the level, but at Parry’s direction, everyone piled sandbags around the two rooms in a bid to contain some of the inward force of the blast. Parry still wasn’t satisfied that they were doing all they could on this front, so he oversaw the construction of another sandbag barrier halfway down the corridor.
    The time had come. Everyone was waiting outside the small canteen off the Hub, where Chester had first noticed his mother behaving strangely. Drake and Eddie had picked it because they believed it would be a good place for them all to shelter from the blast.
    “All systems go,” Parry said, and everyone trooped into the canteen, and the door was shut behind them. They watched as Drake untwisted the two glinting copper wires at the end of the cable, then connected them to the terminals on a detonator.
    No one spoke. As Mrs. Burrows stroked Colly, there was a chorus of anxious meows from the row of wicker baskets along the top of the work surface. Stephanie and Elliott had had a devil of a job rounding up Sergeant Finch’s cats from their various hiding places in the Complex, but it was the least they could do for the old man.
    Drake had told everyone to stow their Bergens in one corner, so they had their kits close by them. And in addition to the many fire extinguishers they’d brought into the room, Parry had ensured that there was enough food and water to last them a few days.
    Drake tugged the wires to make sure they were firmly attached to the terminals, then nodded to his father.
    Parry took a breath, and his voice was gentle for a change. “I don’t think there’s much to say except bloody good luck to every one of us. I sincerely hope God’s smiling on us today.”
    “Amen,” said Sweeney.
    Parry tapped his walking stick twice on the ground. “Now can we all assume safety positions, please?”
    Sergeant Finch was helped out of his mobility scooter and then everyone did as they’d been told, finding a place on the floor. They bowed their heads, their hands clasped behind the napes of their necks.
    Will was watching as Drake wound the handle on the detonator to build up an electrical charge. As it went faster and faster, the whirring of the dynamo filled the room.
    “That’ll be enough,” he decided, hinging back the safety guard around the push handle.
    “OK?” he asked.
    “OK,” Parry replied.
    “See you on the other side,” Drake said.
    He rammed the handle home.

THE ELEVATOR ROSE through the levels of the Chancellery, the massive, monolithic, arched government building at the very center of New Germania. As it came to a stop, the doors slid open and a pair of Styx Limiters stepped from it. Their boots beat in perfect unison as they marched over the highly polished marble floors.

    The Chancellor’s assistant was at her station, a Baroque gilded table with a telephone and a vase of wilted flowers on it. She was brushing her hair as she observed the two soldiers approaching. There would have been a time when she’d have been paralyzed with fear at the sight of these ghoulish men with their skeleton-thin faces and jet-black eyes. Men that reeked of death and destruction.
    But now, as they paused in front of her table, she regarded them with a sleepy detachment.
    “Is he in?” one of them demanded in a growl.
    She nodded with that sheep-eyed look that spoke of intensive Darklighting — along with almost every other inhabitant of New Germania, she’d been subjected to exces-sive amounts of the treatment, and it had all but fried her brain.
    And her appearance had changed considerably since the day, several months before, when Rebecca Two and the Limiter General had made their first visit to the Chancellery. She still wore her efficient blue suit, but the dark roots of her platinum hair were showing, and her makeup was carelessly applied.
    She watched as one of the Limiters kicked open the large wooden doors to the Chancellor’s office and they both stormed in.
    Still brushing her hair, she listened to the commotion inside the room. Then the Limiters emerged, dragging the corpulent Chancellor, Herr Friedrich, between them. They must have caught him during one of his typically lavish lunches, since he still had a napkin tucked into his shirt.
    “I’m going out for a while, Frau Long,” he managed to say before he was carted off down the corridor.

    With two