Tunnels 05 - Spiral

know a thing about it,” Will said, stepping closer to Mrs. Burrows.
    “Mostly at night, to check on you while you slept.” With his boot Eddie rolled over a piece of brick lying on the floor. “Later on, when Dr. Burrows began to drill holes in our hatch, we were forced to reinstate the cellar wall.”
    “I was there then!” Will exclaimed, shaking his head. “I helped him do the drilling so he could put his shelves up!”
    “During his Darklighting sessions, Dr. Burrows was given instructions about the existence of the tunnel,” Eddie said. “We intended that he should discover it and then be drawn down to the Colony. We knew it was almost a certainty that you’d follow him there, Will.”
    “You’re saying Roger was
conditioned
to do that?” Mrs. Burrows asked. “It wasn’t something he did off his own back?”
    “Not at all. In addition to the existence and location of the tunnel, we instilled in him both wanderlust and an over-powering hankering for exploration. Over a period of several years, these were introduced in the form of compulsions deep in his preconscious, ready for us to activate when we decided it was time he should be on his way,” Eddie replied matter-of-factly. “He was highly receptive to our conditioning. Although I wasn’t around to see it, I assume these very same compulsions later drove him to leave the Colony, enter the Deeps, and keep going until he reached the inner world. These actions weren’t taken of his own volition and were not something a man in his right mind would ever contemplate.”
    Will let out a sharp breath. “So . . . so Dad wasn’t really some great explorer . . . and all the stuff he was so mad keen to discover . . . to record in his journal . . . that was because of you.” The boy’s eyes were wide with disbelief as he tried to articulate the myriad thoughts racing through his head. “Then, what I thought Dad was . . . wasn’t really
him
. You made him that way. The Styx made him something he wasn’t?”
    “Yes. Like most Topsoilers, Dr. Burrows was decidedly unmotivated until we Darklit him,” Eddie said, staring at the sightless Mrs. Burrows. “And, of course, we did precisely the opposite to you, Celia. We instilled utter and absoluteapathy in you because there was no role for you to play. It suited us that you did nothing . . . but watch your television.”
    For a moment no one in the cellar spoke.
    “And I thought I was the one with the dynamite around here,” Drake murmured, putting the explosive pads back into the bag.
    As if she was on the verge of fainting, Mrs. Burrows was swaying where she stood. “I knew it,” she croaked several times.
    “Mum?” Will said, as he took her arm to steady her.
    “All those years . . . I felt as though I was fighting something that wasn’t me. I felt as though I was losing myself . . . that I wasn’t in control of my life. And I wasn’t, because you Styx were dictating who I was. It was all a fabrication . . . a construct! Those thoughts . . . my thoughts were never my own!”
    Whether he’d intended it or not, Eddie’s response was completely without remorse. “Yes. I thought that you would have already worked that out for yourself. After all, you managed to overcome the programming when you w —”
    “You hijacked our lives,” Mrs. Burrows growled accusingly. “You soured everything with your games, and
all
because you wanted Sarah Jerome.”
    “Well, not quite,” Eddie said. “It was also an opportunity for the Rebecca twins to gain their experience of life among the Heathen.”
    Nobody noticed that Mrs. Burrows had laid a hand on Will’s shovel.
    With a sudden step forward, she swung it at Eddie. It struck his head with such force he was thrown on top of his daughter.
    “Hey! No!” Drake yelled, wresting the shovel from Mrs. Burrows’s hands. But this did nothing to stop her. She was still trying to punch the Styx as Drake pushed her back.
    “Keep her away!” Elliott cried, supporting her stunned father. “She’s gone crazy.”
    “Mum’s not bloody crazy!” Will yelled at Elliott. “These maniacs are! They messed with our lives! They ruined everything!” He was so furious that he was spitting as he shouted.
    The anger seemed to have gone out of Mrs. Burrows, but Drake was now forced to step in between Will and Elliott, his hands outstretched as he kept them apart. “Everyone just chill. We don’t have time for family feuds. Not now.” He half turned toward