Tunnels 05 - Spiral

eyes.
    “That’s a Morris Minor!” Mr. Rawls announced, and Chester turned to look at the old car hidden behind the truck. It resembled an overripe and very large grape, not just because of its globular shape but because of the dull patina on its paint.
    “It’s Danforth’s,” Parry informed them. “At least he arrived without mishap.”
    Once everyone had gathered up their equipment, they followed Parry along a path surrounded on both sides by thick undergrowth. Chester noticed that Elliott had come to a stop and that she was grimacing and rubbing her shoulder under the strap of the Bergen. Concerned for her, he retraced his steps back to where she was. “Are you all right?” he asked, and placed a hand on her arm.
    She jumped, drawing away from him, then met his eyes. “Stephanie’s very pretty. You never mentioned that you’d met someone on the estate,” she said.
    “I . . . er . . . I didn’t think it mattered,” Chester gabbled. “And I really don’t know her at all.”
    “I do,” Elliott replied. “She’s everything I wanted to be. And everything I hate about myself.”
    Chester had no idea how to respond to this, but Parry had noticed they weren’t keeping up. “Hurry it along, you two,” he called, then continued to strike out along the path. Within a few minutes Chester caught sight of some open land before them.
    “Move quickly along here,” Parry urged.
    They’d emerged in a gulley at the foot of a mountain, much of which was covered with grass and sheep-cropped vegetation. However, toward its upper reaches, the soil had been scoured away by the elements, and large slabs of striated rock stood proud like the remains of ancient fortifications. Chester saw that the gulley was taking them toward a line of electricity pylons.

    Parry called everyone around him on the side of the gulley. “Once we’re over the top, we’ll be in an exposed position. It’s very unlikely there’ll be anyone in the valley below, but just in case, Wilkie’s going to send you across one at a time. Understood?”
    Everyone nodded, then Parry climbed out of sight. When it was Chester’s turn, Wilkie gave him a pat on the back and the boy clambered up the side. With the wind and rain in his face, he began to jog the forty feet across to where Parry was crouched down beside one of a pair of structures at the base of the nearest pylon. As Chester came nearer, he could see that these were two squat, gray-painted transformers approximately twenty feet square and covered in cooling fins. On top of them were what appeared to be elongated goalposts, from which cables extended to the pylon above.
    The transformers were both encircled by a chain-link fence with razor wire strung along the top. Parry ushered Chester through a gate in the fence so he could join his father and a very fed-up Stephanie.
    “This is so not cool anymore,” she said, water dripping from the end of her nose.
    Finally, as Old Wilkie joined them inside the fence, Parry moved toward the nearest of the transformers, from which a steady hum was emanating. On the transformer a sign warned DANGER OF DEATH. KEEP AWAY. HIGH VOLTAGE WILL KILL , with lightning strikes on either side of a red skull and crossbones.
    “Danger indeed,” Parry said, placing a hand on the structure. There was a whiplash crack as electricity discharged. Despite the fact that Parry’s hair was damp, it stood on end. His appearance would have been rather comical if everyone hadn’t thought he was being electrocuted.
    But he was completely unharmed. “Nothing to be worried about,” he said, laughing. “An electrostatic charge to see off the overcurious.” He selected one of the fins on the side of the transformer and pressed a catch on it, then slid open a small hatch.
    They all ducked in though the hatch, entering a claustrophobic chamber on the other side. Parry used his flashlight to see as he pressed a series of digits into a small key panel. The moment he’d finished, a red light blinked on above a grille beside the key panel. From it a man’s voice issued the demand “The prime sequence.”
    “You know precisely who I am. Do we really have to go through this charade every time?” Parry replied tetchily.
    “Of course we do,” the grille snapped, adding “sir” as an afterthought.
    Parry blew through his lips, then recited, “The beast deep within the mountain slumbers until the kingdom calls, and then it shall arise to do the king’s