Tunnels 05 - Spiral

family be any the wiser about where she’d spent her Saturday.
    Rebecca Two remained outside in the chill of the late afternoon, watching the gray saucer of the sun as it slowly dipped toward the horizon. Without any warning, tears began to well up in her eyes.
    When they’d returned Topsoil, it had been confirmed by a Limiter patrol that the passage into the inner world was impenetrable, sealed by what they thought had been a nuclear explosion. A second Limiter patrol had been tasked with the unpredictable journey through the zero-gravity belt but hadn’t yet reported back in. This might have been because they’d perished in the attempt, but Rebecca Two wasn’t expecting good news, anyway.
    She’d had this feeling in her for weeks. It was as if part of her had suddenly been lopped off and, in its place, there was a dark shadow. Something had gone terribly wrong, and her twin sister was either in difficulty. Or dead.
    She just knew it.
    As she sniffed and wiped her eyes, the old Styx appeared beside her. He gave her a lingering glance. It wasn’t done for Styx to show such emotion, and he might have rebuked her if there hadn’t been more pressing matters to attend to.
    “You need to see this.”
    He led her inside the building and up the steps to the viewing area at the end of the swimming pool.
    As Rebecca Two peered down, she saw that the water was a murky brown from the blood and decay of the many corpses on the walkways around the pool. Plump Warrior larvae slithered along the tiles, while others had already gone into pupation, their chrysalises hanging from the walls.
    “So? What am I looking at?” she asked curtly.
    “There,” the old Styx said.
    She followed his gaze to a far corner of the pool. The water began to broil, then, with a massive splash, something burst from the surface and landed on the tiles.
    With the filthy water draining from it, she could see a form the size of a man, but it was almost transparent, like a shrimp. Clear fluids pumped around its body as its gills fanned open, and it howled like nothing Rebecca Two had ever heard before.
    “So it’s not just a myth,” she whispered in awe. “It’s the Armagi.”

I would like to thank . . .
    My wife, Sophie, and my two sons. There wouldn’t be anything without them.
    Barry Cunningham, who is so much more than just my editor or publisher. Until we met up early in the summer of 2010, I had quite a different middle section planned for
Spiral
. Out of the blue, Barry asked me if the Styx were really human or not. As I do every time this question is bowled at me by readers, I tried to avoid giving him an answer, but he was insistent. Barry’s like that. As I opened up a little to him and we continued to chat, it crystallized some radical ideas about the Styx women and changed the course of the book. So if you don’t like the way the story turned out, you know who to speak to.
    Catherine Pellegrino of Rogers, Coleridge & White — the best literary agent and hand-holder a writer could hope for.
    Karen Everitt, who plays such a crucial part in the writing process as she corrects my countless mistakes using her encyclopedic knowledge of the series.
    Kirill Barybin, an exceptional young artist who got in contact through TunnelsDeeper.com, and who keeps me inspired with his work in those dark, lonely months of writing.
    Andrew Douds for his invaluable advice. Any inaccuracies are entirely my own.
    Rachel Hickman, Elinor Bagenal, Steve Wells, and Nicki Marshall at Chicken House, and David Wyatt (cover artist extraordinaire), who together made this book what it is.
    At Scholastic in New York, Siobhán McGowan and Starr Baer, Joy Simpkins, Jacqueline Hornberger, Kevin Callahan, and Whitney Lyle.
    Simon and Jen Wilkie, and Craig Turner, who together with Karen Everitt run TunnelsDeeper.com, and have done so much for the series.
    And a host of people I should have mentioned before now, because in various ways they’ve been so important in helping, supporting, and influencing me as the series has progressed. They are: Mathew Horsman, Rosemary Gordon (my mother), Diana Harman (my sister), Patrick Robbins, Andrew Fusek Peters, Richard and Kathy Lynam, Chris and Sue White, Stuart Clarke, Simon and Miranda Grafftey-Smith, Ray Rough, Joel M. Guelzo, and Simon Finch.
    Roderick Gordon 6 April 2011

Text copyright © 2012 by Roderick Gordon.
    Inside illustrations © Roderick Gordon except: Sweeney, BT Tower, and the Old Styx © by Kirill Barybin;