Tunnels 05 - Spiral

pockets. Will couldn’t believe that he appeared to be so relaxed, given the circumstances. “How did you know we were here? Did you pick up the radio signals?” Drake asked.
    Rebecca One shook her head.
    “It was me,” Vane said, fluid spraying from her cracked black lips. “I smelled another female in heat.” She was staring straight at Elliott. “Why aren’t you joining with us in the Phase?”
    “Me?” Elliott mouthed wordlessly.
    “Golly, Gargoyle Lady can talk!” Sweeney chimed in as he smiled at Vane.
    Her face creasing with fury, Vane reared toward him, three pairs of insect limbs flailing out from her shoulders.
    “That’s new,” Will whispered as Elliott shot a glance at him.
    “I . . . want . . . him,” Vane growled at Sweeney, one of the egg tubes poking from her mouth. “I want to lay my babies in him.”
    Sweeney chuckled mirthlessly. “There’s an offer I can’t refuse.”
    Vane’s insect limbs threshed furiously at this impertinence.
    Rebecca One placed a hand on the Styx woman’s arm. “All in good time, Vane,” she said. “First, we’re all professionals here, so I don’t think you’ll be wildly surprised that I want you to lay down your weapons. My men have you in their sights, so no funny stuff.”
    Thinking that it was all over, Will and Elliott had begun to comply, when Drake spoke. He had slipped his hands from his pockets.
    “No,” he said.
    “Oh, please,” Rebecca One sighed wearily. “Let’s not prolong this. You can’t escape — and I’ve got another detachment of men on the way. Take a look for yourselves if you don’t believe me.”
    Will and the others turned to see. Along the side of the crater, there must have been forty or so New Germanian troops running in formation, a Limiter leading them. They were minutes away.
    As the rain continued to beat down, Drake slowly raised his arms. “No, I won’t do what you say. In this hand I have the detonator,” he said coolly. “One teeny-weeny press and the nukes detonate and you’re stranded in this world forever. And if you think you might be able to stop me with a shot, then look at what Sparks is holding.”
    Sweeney held up his identical detonator.
    “If that isn’t enough, I have something rather special from your Laboratories in my other hand,” Drake said. As he revealed it with a flourish, the blue flash of a lightning strike reflected from the small test tube.
    He had Rebecca One’s attention now. “What’s that?” she asked.
    “I snitched it from the vaults in your Laboratories before I leveled the building. I’d heard rumors from the Scientists that you had something like it. You know how academics like to show off.” Drake agitated the test tube, the fluid inside spinning around. “My immunologist friend says it’s the most virulent pathogen he’s ever encountered. He says the prospect of it getting out makes him shiver because it’s capable of killing just about every complex life-form on the planet. Is that why the Scientists never deployed it, because it’s indiscriminate? Because it kills Styx, too?” Drake smiled. “Is all this ringing a bell with you, Becky, dear?”
    “Don’t call me that,” she fumed, but her bluster had gone.
    “And my friend Charlie tinkered with it. With a little bit of genetic manipulation, it’s now not solely waterborne in its distribution but airborne, too. So it’s spread by the wind, and it kills in a few hours. Very bloody nasty.” Drake raised his eyebrows. “And have you had the vaccine for it? No? I didn’t think so. Shame — all of us have.”
    “You’re bluffing,” Rebecca One said. She turned to Vane. “He’s bluffing. He won’t use the virus because it might find its way to the surface. He’s not going to take the risk.” She swung to Drake. “I don’t care what you say, because there’s no way I’m backing off. So we’ve got ourselves a complete stalemate here.”
    All of a sudden, a line in the ground seemed to burst open behind one of the pairs of Limiters. Will had the briefest glimpse of an extremely thin man with an unruly beard and the palest of faces. The man caught the first of the two Limiters completely unawares, slashing the Styx soldier’s throat.
    “Jiggs!” Drake exclaimed.
    The second Limiter had more time to put up a fight; as he and Jiggs struggled with each other, they tipped over into the crater and out of sight.
    Sweeney took full advantage of the distraction, covering the ground at