Tunnels 05 - Spiral

he’d increased the size of the opening. “That’s enough. Over to you, Will.” Breathing heavily, Drake turned to the boy. “We need the spoil cleared away so we can see what we’re up against. And you used to enjoy a spot of digging, didn’t you?”
    Will smiled. “Sure, but this is going to take ages, isn’t it?” He was remembering how many days he and Chester had toiled to reexcavate the tunnel the first time around.
    “Not if I can help it,” Drake said. “Just do your stuff, Will.”
    “OK,” Will replied. He chose a shovel from the bag and expertly tested its weight in his hands. Then he spat on his palms. “Watch out! I’m back!” he announced, and began to dig.
    He worked like a whirlwind, only stopping to lift aside the larger pieces of rubble that he encountered. Elliott, Drake, and Mrs. Burrows had formed a chain and were passing the filled buckets to the end of the cellar, where they emptied them out.
    With a jarring clang, Will swore and straightened up. “Bad news — I’ve hit solid rock. It’s a bloody monster of a piece.” He wiped the sweat from his forehead. “There was nothing like this when I dug the tunnel out.”
    Drake didn’t seem to be at all disheartened by this news, but before he could respond to Will, his walkie-talkie crackled into life. “Your Christmas turkeys have flown in,” the mechanic’s voice announced, using Drake’s code. A few moments later, there were footsteps on the wooden stairs, and Eddie descended into the cellar.
    “Where are Sweeney and the Colonel?” Mrs. Burrows asked. “And Colly?”
    “They’re staying with the truck until we need them,” Eddie replied.
    “Hope they’re keeping their eyes peeled,” Drake said. “With that payload, we can’t afford to take risks — any number of terrorists or rogue states would give their eyeteeth for fissionable material in full weapon configuration. Besides that, Parry would go postal on me if I lost them!” He grinned. “And while I’m on the subject of explosives” — he went over to one of the large bags that Will had carried into the house and zipped it open — “it’s time to use the charges. We’ll just keep blasting until we’re through.”
    “You’ve already hit the first barrier?” Eddie inquired.
    “You mean this?” Will said, as he turned to slap the uneven wall of rock.
    “Yes. It will be approximately five feet in width, followed by more loose material, and then the same thickness of rock again,” Eddie pronounced.
    “You seem pretty sure about that,” Drake commented, as he took two pads of explosives from the bag.
    Eddie nodded. “It would be more normal for the tunnel to be collapsed in along its full length so there’d be no opportunity for anyone to use it again. Particularly after you and Chester came down it,” he said, glancing at Will. “But there was nothing
normal
about this tunnel. We envisaged that we might need to bring it back into service again.”
    Although Will was still contemplating the slab of rock blocking the way, his curiosity was piqued. “Why? What was so special about it?”
    “It was referred to as the Jerome tunnel,” Eddie told him.
    Will’s head jerked toward the former Limiter. “The what?” he asked.
    “It was named after your blood mother — Sarah Jerome.”
    Will frowned.
    “Do you think it was simply down to chance that a tunnel led straight to your house?” Eddie put to him.
    “I don’t know . . . I haven’t really thought about it,” Will admitted.
    “It was excavated specifically for you, Will — or more specifically, so that there was a quick means to reach you if Sarah showed herself. The Styx Panoply had made her recapture a priority, due to her growing influence as an antihero for the more rebellious elements in our city.”
    “You mean in the Rookeries,” Will interjected.
    “No, not just there but across the rest of the Colony, too. We wanted to reel her in and make an example of her. Of course, when we did eventually apprehend Sarah, the Rebecca twins had other plans for her.”
    “Yes, they tried to make her kill me,” Will said quietly as Eddie peered into the shadows behind him.
    “And this tunnel also enabled us to maintain contact with the Styx females you call the Rebecca twins,” Eddie said. “Particularly when they were first embedded in your family as infants. It enabled us to swap them over as and when we wanted.”
    “So you were sneaking into our home, and we didn’t