Tunnels 06 - Terminal

 
     
    Previously, in Spiral …
    W ill and Drake learn from Eddie, the former Limiter, that the Styx race is entering the Phase, a stage in their lifecycle which has occurred only two or three times down the millennia. A new Phase would mean the rapid production of an army of Styx Warrior Class Limiters, with devastating consequences for the country as they cut a swathe through the Topsoil population.
    Drake’s father, Parry, mounts a military operation to destroy a warehouse in which the Phase is taking place. It is thought that all the Styx women have been eliminated and that the Phase has been averted, until a security video on a hard drive reveals that two have managed to escape the net. One of these women, Hermione, goes to ground in Topsoil England, while the other, Vane, travels to the inner world. Each of them intends to restart the Phase, although a successful outcome is far from guaranteed.
    That’s the good news.
    The bad news is that Styx mythology tells of a possible second reproduction cycle, effectively a backstop in the instance that the Phase is not able to proceed. This would have even worse implications for the human race as the far deadlier Armagi would be spawned, killing beasts capable of rapidly adapting to different environments, and of regenerating after injury.
    As Will and the team regroup to plan their next move, Danforth has come up with his own plan to defect to the Styx. But when he makes his move, he brings about the death of Chester’s parents and entombs everyone in the Complex, Parry’s government stronghold deep in a Scottish mountain.
    After the team eventually manage to escape from the Complex, Parry and Eddie remain Topsoil with members of the Old Guard and Eddie’s former Limiters, their brief to track down and kill Hermione. Anticipating that her sister, Vane, is going to attempt to use the population of New Germania as the hosts in a new Phase, Drake leads Will, Elliott, Sweeney and Colonel Bismarck on amission to the inner world. Their task is to seal the Ancients’ passage and the pore, the only two ways in or out of the inner world, with nuclear explosions.
    However, before the devices can be detonated, Drake and his team are surprised at the pore by Vane, Rebecca One and a squad of Limiters.
    Colonel Bismarck is shot dead by the Limiters and, in the ensuing struggle, help comes from an unexpected quarter. To Drake and the others’ complete surprise, Jiggs has shadowed them to the inner world and now springs into action. He slashes the throat of one Limiter, and then takes a second out of the running by sweeping him over into the pore with him. Drake is forced to do the same with the Styx twin, but is still able to remotely detonate the nuclear bomb as he falls towards the zero-gravity belt.
    Sweeney loses his life because he is too close to the electromagnetic pulse from the nuclear explosion, and it fries the circuits in his head. As he topples to the ground, he crushes a test tube in his pocket and inadvertently releases a deadly virus sourced from the Eternal City, which wipes out not just every human and Styx present in the inner world, but virtually all other species. Will and Elliott survive the virus because they have been vaccinated against it, but they are now sealed in Dr Burrows’ ‘Garden of the Second Sun’, seemingly with no way to return Topsoil.
    And on the surface in a remote cottage on the Pembrokeshire coast, Old Wilkie and his granddaughter Stephanie care for Chester as he tries to deal with the death of his parents.
    Although the Phase in the inner world has been forestalled, Hermione’s efforts on the surface have borne fruit, and the deadly Armagi are spawned.
    This final instalment in the Tunnels series picks up the story just minutes before the nuclear explosion in the pore, as Jiggs battles for his life …

 
     
     
    Prologue
    T he battle would end with one of them dead.
    Hands gripped wrists, arms taut as metal hawsers, muscles shaking from extreme exertion.
    They strained and resisted, man and Styx testing each other time and time again as their blades reflected the sun far above, which grew ever smaller as they continued to fall.
    The Limiter’s lips were drawn back and his teeth bared as he swore in the Styx language, but Jiggs was completely silent.
    They’d been locked in mortal combat from the first instant that Jiggs had swept the Limiter over into the void with him. The Styx had lost his long rifle early on when Jiggs