Tunnels 05 - Spiral

charges so they direct all their force into the face itself. If Eddie’s right and the Styx didn’t knobble the roof, we’re going to be just fine,” Drake said. “It’s not as if it matters if it gives way after we’ve gone through.”
    “Poor house,” Will said.

    As arranged, a handful of Eddie’s former Limiters turned up to help with the work on the tunnel. It was odd watching them laboring in silence, but Will was grateful for the extra manpower.
    It took three more rounds with the explosives to punch a way through the rock plug in the tunnel. And, at the end of the process, so much spoil had been generated that in places it reached up to the cellar roof. Even the motorcycle Drake had so admired had been completely buried. The only relatively clear area was a corridor from the bottom of the stairs to the tunnel entrance.
    “Let’s have a look, shall we?” Drake said, pushing aside the debris so he and Will could move deeper into the tunnel, past where the blockage had been.
    “This brings back a few memories,” Will murmured, as they followed the passage around a corner. And there it was — the crescent-shaped chamber with walls of milky rock, which Will had first discovered with Chester.
    As Will and Drake peered around, the beams from their miner’s lights seemed to penetrate the translucent rock itself and make it glow. Much of the grotto floor was submerged under rust-colored water. Will was wading quickly through this in his haste to reach the door he knew lay at the far end of the grotto, when he turned to Drake. “You know, I thought this place was the best thing I’d ev —”
    “STOP!” Drake yelled, his voice booming within the confines of the chamber.
    Will almost lost his footing as he threw himself into reverse.
    In the blink of an eye Drake was beside him. “Keep — Very — Still,” he said in a deliberate way that told Will it was critical he did precisely as he’d been told. “Not an inch backward — or forward,” Drake added. “You’re hooked up.”
    “What do you mean?” Will asked. Keeping his head still, he swiveled his eyes as far as he could. Drake’s outstretched hand was poised by a taut wire, which extended horizontally across the cavern and directly in their path.
    “Blimey. I’m touching it,” Will whispered as he realized that the wire was actually resting against his chest. It was so fine as to be almost invisible. All that gave it away was the glistening droplets of moisture along its length as Drake’s miner’s light played on them.
    “Very bloody sneaky-weaky,” Drake said. He traced where the wire ran to the middle of the grotto, culminating among the wreckage of a machine that lay in the deeper water. Whatever the machine had once been, it was now a mass of corroded iron cogs in a twisted frame.
    “So the tripwire’s secured there . . . ,” Drake whispered, then moved behind Will so he could trace the route of the wire in the opposite direction. “Always be on the lookout for secondaries,” he said, taking extra care about where he was treading in the shallow water. He reached the grotto wall and extracted several items from a pouch on his belt.
    Will couldn’t see what he was doing. “What’s there? Can I move now?” he asked, barely daring to breathe.
    “Mot . . . am . . . mufscle,” Drake replied, a screwdriver gripped between his teeth. He swapped it for the penknife he’d been using, then another minute passed before he finally announced, “OK. Done.”
    The tripwire suddenly zinged away toward the ruined machine, and Will finally let out his breath.
    “Here!” Drake lobbed something at Will. With a cry of alarm, he caught it. Many dull marble-sized ball bearings spilled from a small canister, dropping all around Will’s feet with little splashes. Drake had removed a panel in the canister and a few remaining bearings rattled around inside it, against a stick of what looked like plasticine.
    “Styx antipersonnel explosive device mark 3. Guaranteed to ruin your day, or your money back,” Drake said. “In the future, Sweeney or I will take point.”
    “You got it,” Will agreed, tipping the last of the bearings from the canister.

    Because there wasn’t enough room in the cellar, all their equipment was taken into the living room and laid out so Drake could give it a last check. Will and Elliott watched as Sweeney and Colonel Bismarck lugged the second of the two nuclear weapons into the hallway. Mrs. Burrows