Tunnels 05 - Spiral

it was, but I don’t want you to blame him. It wasn’t something he was doing consciously.”
    “You said ‘he’?” Will burst out.
    Drake nodded. “And the calls stopped after he was purged by Danforth.”
    Will shifted uneasily on his feet. “So the Styx programmed me — or someone — to make —”
    Drake waved him into silence. “Elliott and I watched all the films from the purging sessions. I regret to say” — he wheeled around to face Chester — “the upshot of it is that you mentioned a couple of the digits from the phone number, along with some Styx words that Elliott was able to translate.”
    “What . . . no!” Chester cried, blanching. “Me?”
    “Yes, you. Most likely the Styx conditioned you to call in and report our location. You may have even made some calls to them without knowing it long before we arrived here,” Drake said, without reprimand. “So the odds are they probably have a good idea of where we are right now.”
    “But . . . I wouldn’t do that!” Chester tottered back a step.
    Elliott went over to him, taking his hand. “You mustn’t blame yourself. You couldn’t help it.”
    “No, it wasn’t me,” Chester said, his voice uneven. “I’d remember something.”
    “No, you wouldn’t,” Drake said gently.
    Chester just looked at him, his eyes swimming with tears as he tried to speak, to say something to defend himself. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” he blurted and ran from the room. Mr. Rawls followed after him.
    “That went well,” Parry said without any suggestion of humor, then addressed everyone. “So now we’re on a condition of high alert, and we can’t stay here much longer. Our location is blown.”
    “But if it’s the Styx, why haven’t they attacked already?” Will asked.
    “I don’t know. Perhaps we’re on their ‘To Do’ list and they’ll get around to it when they have a spare moment,” Parry replied a little sarcastically. It was evident that he wasn’t taking this latest development well. “I’ve already warned Wilkie and the others, and Danforth is running a full systems check on the security cameras and thermal sensors around the estate to make sure they’re fully operational.”
    Drake took over. “What’s for sure is that we must be a prioritized target for the Styx. They won’t want us popping up at an inopportune moment and gate-crashing their party. When — and it’s not
if
— they show up here, we’ll have to leave in a hurry. So everyone should pack. And you should all check out a weapon from the armory in the basement.”
    Parry grimaced. “A damned nuisance.” He began to mutter to himself. “There’s too many of us. We’ll need more water and food to keep us ticking over in the alternative location, and I can’t do that with a wave of a magic wand.” Thwacking his walking stick hard on the floor, he hurried from the room, still complaining to himself.

WILL CRADLED HIS STEN in his lap. “I feel better now I’ve got my old friend back.” He glanced up at Chester. “But are you OK about that Darklighting stuff?”
    Chester gave a small shrug. “What freaks me out is that I can’t remember a bloody thing about making any calls. Nothing at all.” He frowned. “Even that time in the cottage in Norfolk with nutjob Martha . . . there was a phone there. . . . Maybe I rang the Styx from it. I couldn’t have told them much because I had no idea where I was. When she bashed me over the head, I thought I was trying to call my parents. But maybe I wasn’t, and maybe she was right t —”
    “Don’t,” Will said. “You’ll end up going crazy yourself if you don’t just forget it. It doesn’t matter now. It’s done. And remember what they stuck in my head. That was worse.”
    “You’re right,” Chester agreed. “C’mon, it’s your move.” They were in the drawing room and on their second game of chess as a log crackled comfortingly in the fireplace. Drake had asked them to stay up until the early hours, in case unwelcome visitors decided to call at the estate.
    Will’s hand had wandered to his queen, but he withdrew it as his concentration shifted to the dancing flames. “Talking about Martha, remember all those times we played chess in her shack?” he said.
    Chester nodded.
    Will’s gaze was still lost in the fire. “We really thought Elliott was going to die,” he said.
    “You like her a lot, don’t you?” Chester asked casually, assessing his position on the board.
    Will