Tunnels 05 - Spiral

you’ve got yourself a deal. You have my word on it — scout’s honor ’n’ all that. We’ll see you soon.”
    She ended the call. Without missing a beat, she raised the handgun to the Limiter’s chest and discharged it at point-blank range.
    “What the . . . ?” Rebecca Two leaped back as, right in front of her, the Limiter sank to the floor. “What did you do that for?”
    Rebecca One barely drew breath to reply. “Executive decision . . . no time to explain now,” she said.
    Stepping over the Limiter’s body, she threw open the doors. As the humidity and the stench of raw meat from the warehouse enveloped them, Rebecca One was already racing inside. “Find Alex and Vane,” she shouted to her sister. “And fast!”

    Parry took the first party down in the elevator. He’d told everyone to change from their Arctic Issue parkas into a variety of other less conspicuous clothes that had been provided to them back in the Complex. But as they entered the BT Tower reception area in their Sherpa jackets and thick corduroy trousers, they resembled a Victorian climbing party about to set out on an expedition.
    Terry Finch was beside the revolving door as he kept a careful eye on Mortimer Street outside.
    “You dealt with the staff, then?” Parry asked, speaking loudly to the old man as he ran his eyes over the rather drab area and the abandoned reception desk. “The Emergency Order obviously did the trick.”
    “Well, . . . they’ve gone to a Starbucks around the corner until I give them the say-so to return,” Terry answered.
    Parry frowned. “You don’t sound too sure — was there a problem?” he pressed the old man impatiently.
    “One of the security gentlemen wanted to check with head office, so I stuck the official document in front of him.”
    “And that worked?” Parry asked.
    “No, he wasn’t buying it, so I drew my Webley on him,” Terry said with a mischievous grin, taking a revolver from the holster in the small of his back. “That worked like magic.”
    “Riiiight,” Parry exhaled, his frown growing even more pronounced. He looked from Will to Drake. “Make sure you’ve got your tranquilizer pistols handy,” he said before he addressed Mrs. Burrows. “And, Celia, can you keep a
nose
out for any trouble heading our way? I need to know what’s waiting for us around the corner,” he told her.
    “A very nice Italian restaurant about three hundred yards up on the left. The calzone’s making me feel quite ravenous,” she said, smiling.
    “Why doesn’t anyone
ever
give me a straight answer?” Parry grumbled just as two old minibuses pulled up on the yellow line outside. The rest of the party had descended in the elevator, and one at a time, they exited onto the street and loaded their gear into the backs of the vehicles.
    The driver of each minibus didn’t speak as they threaded their way through London. Will saw for the first time just how far things had gone in the capital. Other than the groups of soldiers and policemen stationed around the place, Euston Road itself appeared to be quite normal and the traffic relatively heavy. But as he glanced down side roads, it was a different story. He spotted the odd burned-out car and huge piles of household rubbish that hadn’t been collected in weeks. Fire engines blocked the entrance to Regent’s Park, and beyond its gates whole rows of large white buildings blazed away.
    They took a right off Marylebone Road and raced through several back roads because the driver of the first minibus had spotted trouble up ahead. Then they emerged at the start of the Marylebone Flyover and sped up the incline.
    They had all turned their radios on so they could hear Parry’s directions as he spoke into his throat mike from the first minibus, which was also carrying Stephanie, Sweeney, and the Colonel. “I’ve received a report that there’s a disturbance in Shepherd’s Bush, and the army is out in force there. So we’re going to leave London on the M3, then cut across country to the M4. We’ll maintain radio silence from now on, unless there’s a hiccup.”
    “Hiccup?” Mrs. Burrows asked as there was a click and their earpieces went ominously quiet.
    Drake swiveled around in his seat beside the driver to answer her, glancing at Will, then Chester and Mr. Rawls in the process. “My old man means if they hit a problem, they’ll open up with their weapons and take the heat so we can bug out. One of the vehicles
has
to make it