Tunnels 05 - Spiral

the power for it came from the nearby electricity lines outside, the clever thing being that, because it was taken straight from the grid, no one could tell that current was being siphoned off for the secret establishment.
    “Which elevator did he tell us to avoid?” Mrs. Burrows asked as she stood in the middle of the lobby. Sergeant Finch had warned that one of the elevators was liable to break down, but she hadn’t been able to see which of them he’d been referring to.
    “Here,” Elliott answered, leading Mrs. Burrows by the hand to the closed doors. “Just remember not to take the first on this side.”
    “Thank you,” Mrs. Burrows said.
    Chester summoned an elevator, and one arrived almost immediately. “Going up,” he mumbled, and stepped to the side to allow Elliott and Mrs. Burrows to enter, then reluctantly followed them in.
    The elevator picked up speed as it ascended, then abruptly shuddered to a halt. The main light above them went out, and another blinked on, bathing them in a dim yellow glow. A prerecorded man’s voice calmly announced, “
Emergency Lighting
.”
    “Oh, bloody brilliant,” Chester complained as he repeatedly pressed the button with
H
on it to try to get them moving again. “Rather have taken the stairs . . . haven’t trusted elevators ever since that wonky contraption under Will’s house.”
    But the moment he’d finished speaking, the elevator sprang back into life and continued on its way up.
    “So Drake and Will . . . are they all OK? Nothing happened on the way here?” Elliott asked Mrs. Burrows. The girl was rubbing her shoulder as if it was painful.
    There was no time for an answer as a bell tinged and the doors slid open. The three of them exited, passing down several passageways to reach the Hub. The illumination on the way was similar to the emergency lighting in the elevator.
    “I wonder why it’s so dark,” Chester commented as they stepped into the Hub.
    The first person they saw was Danforth, lit by the glow of not just his original laptop but another five of them arranged on trestle tables around him. He’d obviously continued to work on whatever he was doing as many more wall panels had been opened, and a bewildering number of cables spilled from them and around the legs of the tables. Noticing that Chester, Elliott, and Mrs. Burrows had entered the Hub, he peered up briefly. “Main power’s going to be off for a while,” he said, without any further explanation.
    “Will! Drake!” Elliott shouted as she spotted them on the other side of the Hub, and hurried over.
    “I don’t believe it!” Chester cried as he saw who was in his father’s arms. Mr. and Mrs. Rawls were standing at the mouth of the entrance tunnel.
    “Chester!” Mrs. Rawls shouted, widening her embrace to include him as he dashed over to her. Chester clung to her, feeling her face wet with tears of happiness and relief.
    “You found her! Thank you!” Chester said to Drake. “Thank you so much!”
    Drake nodded, then turned to Elliott. “We need to talk,” he began, his voice serious.
    Elliott noticed that Will had stepped a little closer to her, and also the way in which he was peering nervously at her back — at the long rifle slung over her shoulder, she assumed.
    “What is it?” she asked, immediately aware that something was amiss. She took a couple of paces away from Will and Drake. “Why won’t you tell me?”
    Then she happened to glance down the long entrance tunnel. Two figures were making their way toward the Hub along it. The larger of them — the hulking form — was unmistakable even at the distance. “Sweeney,” Elliott said, but she didn’t recognize the second, smaller figure. “Who’s that with him?”
    “Elliott . . . ,” Will said, edging closer to her. “We’ve got —”
    “Jiggs . . . is that Jiggs?” Elliott demanded, squinting down the tunnel. Although there had been the odd mention of him, nobody had actually laid eyes on him yet, although they assumed they would before long.
    Elliott shook her head slowly.
    “No,” she said.
    She shot a glance at Drake.
    “No! Not him!”
    Will saw the way she’d set her jaw, and the look of deadly intent in her eyes.
    “Elliott, give me the rifle,” Drake asked, trying to seize hold of her, but she was too fast.
    She ran toward the figure.
    Toward her father.



VANE PUSHED HERSELF off the Colonist she’d just impregnated. With slow, reptilian precision, she extended her leg to the