Tunnels 05 - Spiral

sent a couple of units into the sewers, in case anything tries to use the drains to make a break for it.”
    The snow on the tarmac helped to deaden any sound the Old Guard made as they closed in. And when they reached the boundary fencing around the site, all that could be heard was the occasional bluster of the wind.
    Then there was activity. The main doors to the office building swung open, and a Limiter emerged, clearly in a hurry. Something had rattled him. But he’d taken only a couple of paces before a crossbow bolt struck him in the neck. As he dropped to the ground, all the Old Guard seemed to be holding their breath, but no one else followed him through the doors.
    “Charlie,” Parry’s voice crackled over the radio. “I say again, Charlie. Before we lose the advantage of surprise.”
    Drake signaled to Will and the others to come with him through the gates and into the parking lot. The Old Guard were all around them, running to the various entry points of the factory that Parry had assigned them.
    “Stay well back,” Drake ordered as he and Sweeney moved into the main entrance of the office building, covering one another. There was no one in the reception area, so Drake immediately advanced along the corridor leading from it, Sweeney checking the rooms on either side as they went.
    “The boardroom,” Drake whispered into the throat mike as Sweeney slipped through the last of the doors. “I saw it on the ground plan.”
    With their Stens at the ready, the boys kept their distance as Drake had told them, with Mrs. Burrows, the Colonel, and Mr. Rawls bringing up the rear. A couple of the Old Guard had also entered the reception area, but they remained by the doors.
    When Sweeney emerged from the boardroom, he and Drake inched farther down the corridor. They stopped as a small explosion shook the whole factory, followed by the rattle of automatic weapons.
    “Delta, Delta, Delta!” Parry’s urgent voice came over the radio. “The gloves are off!”
    Unscrewing the silencer from his Beretta, Drake turned to address everybody. “The Styx know we’re here now, but we’re still going to take it nice and easy,” he said.
    He and Sweeney continued down the corridor until they came to a corner. Sweeney moved ahead, his back to the wall, while Drake slid along the opposite side.
    Sweeney suddenly raised a fist, and Drake froze. The big man pointed to his ear, then up ahead. He’d heard something.

    The Warrior larva could have pulverized what was left of the Limiter’s skull with its powerful molars, but other softer and juicier parts of the corpse were too inviting. It was moving toward the Limiter’s legs when it heard the explosion and the ensuing gunfire.
    It paused momentarily, but then the smell of the blood from the two bullet holes Rebecca One had left in the man’s chest became too much for it to resist. The larva crept back up the Limiter’s body and began to lick at these, then nibbled the meat on the man’s ribs.

    “What’s that?” Sweeney whispered to Drake.
    Dappled with blood, the ivory-colored tail had been sweeping from side to side, visible to both of them. Then, as the creature clawed its way up the Limiter’s corpse, the tail disappeared from view.
    And whether the larva had heard or smelled the two humans approaching along the corridor, it now reluctantly stopped feeding and lowered its body in readiness.
    Sweeney was straining to hear what was there. But it was impossible with all the noise coming from the other parts of the building.
    “Careful,” Drake whispered, taking tiny steps forward.
    There was no fear in the larva’s mind — it wasn’t capable of that. All it felt was the excitement that more food, with beating hearts, was coming its way. It suddenly broke from cover and hurtled into the corridor.
    “Jesus! Contact!” Drake cried, as the Warrior larva scuttled straight past him like a lizard, opposing legs clawing the carpet.
    The speed at which the creature was moving was phenomenal, but so was Sweeney’s reaction time. He managed to get a shot off, clipping its tail. And although Sweeney was back at the corner of the corridor in the blink of an eye, with the retreating hindquarters of the larva squarely in his sights, he was unable to take a second shot. Will was right in the line of fire if the bullet happened to go wide.
    The single shot might have slowed it a little, but the Warrior larva was still haring straight down the middle of the