Tunnels 05 - Spiral

took it over to the counter, where he laid it on the worn oak surface. “As you know, our objective is to seal the inner world with the nuclear weapons. So that the Phase — if it’s been resumed there — is fully contained.”
    Drake undid the catches on the attaché case. Inside, there was a metal canister nestling in a foam inset, which he took out.
    “During the year I was held prisoner in the Laboratories, I overheard the Scientists discussing a virus,” Drake said, then smiled. “Academics do like to boast to each other.”
    “It wasn’t Dominion?” Elliott asked.
    “No, not Dominion.” Drake unscrewed the top of the canister and ever so carefully eased a small test tube from it. “The Scientists knew exactly what they’d unearthed in the Eternal City. They’d trialed this on a range of subjects, and they were in awe of what it did.” Drake held up the test tube. “This little baby is far more powerful and more indiscriminate than Dominion. Not just humans but the Styx and many of the more developed life-forms are susceptible to it. It’s deadly with a capital
D
.”
    “So you got it from the Laboratories?” Will said.
    “Yes. When Chester and I raided them and fortuitously rescued Celia at the same time, I had the opportunity to grab it from the secure vault in the secondary path lab. That was why I was late on the scene and Eddie got the better of me.” Drake thought of something. “By the way, none of you need to worry — you were all immunized against it when I gave you that shot back in the Complex. And when I was in London, I had my friend Charlie weaponize it — so it’s now not just transmitted by direct contact but by droplet nuclei transmission.”
    “That being . . . ?” Mrs. Burrows interjected.
    Drake’s eyes were slightly unfocused as he stared at the clear fluid in the test tube. “It can spread in air . . . on the wind. And I doubt there’s anything quite as lethal or as toxic anywhere on this whole blasted planet right now, inside or out.”
    “But you made it worse when you
weaponized
it. . . . Was that wise?” Mrs. Burrows asked.
    “Maybe not, but when we’re on the ground in the Colonel’s world, if all else fails I might need a bargaining chip. The Styx know what this virus represents. They know it will bring about what the scientific community calls an Extinction Event . . . and that means an end to their race, too.”
    He turned to the First Officer. “The reason I’m bringing you in on this is that I have enough vaccine for all your people.There’s a chance — a slim chance — that if it’s released in the inner world, it might eventually work its way up to the surface. And you’d be bang smack in its path if it does.”
    “What about Topsoilers?” the First Officer asked.
    “Parry’s got the vaccine, too,” Drake replied as he slotted the test tube back into the metal canister.
    Mrs. Burrows was frowning skeptically. “Enough for everybody?”
    Drake closed the clips on the case. “No, and there wouldn’t be time to vaccinate everybody, anyway. I don’t have the slightest intention of letting it loose, but ask yourselves this . . .” He took the case back to his Bergen, then turned to everyone, looking at them each in turn: at Sweeney, Colonel Bismarck, Elliott, Will, the First Officer, and finally Mrs. Burrows. “What’s worse, this deadly pathogen or the Phase? Because I don’t think there’s much in it.”

THE MINERS' TRAIN chugged out of the station in the Colony as they set off on the first leg of the journey that would take them deep into the bowels of the Earth. Unlike the last time, when Will had stowed away in one of the open trucks, he was now in the guard’s car at the very end of the train. And although the warped timber planking that formed the sides and roof of the car had numerous gaps in it, at least it offered a degree of protection from the smoke and soot spewing from the locomotive up ahead as it began to build up a head of steam.
    Over the roar of the engine, Will could hear the pair of pure white stallions whinnying in the next car. The First Officer had requisitioned them from one of the Governor’s residencies — the official had kept them hidden away in his personal stables during the troubles, knowing that the starving masses would have devoured them, given half a chance. The Governor had been beside himself with rage when Cleaver turned up with an official letter from the newly formed Colonists’