Tunnels 06 - Terminal

she said.
    Danforth wasn’t in the mood for any sentimentality.
    For a small man, he still knew how to handle himself. Throwing his arm around Captain Franz’s neck so he had him in a lock, Danforth pressed the Limiter scythe to the man’s throat. Thinking it might come in useful, he’d retrieved the weapon at the same time as his spectacles. ‘Hold it!’ he ordered Rebecca Two.
    ‘Okay – just please don’t hurt him,’ she implored Danforth, then spotted the Limiter’s blood on Captain Franz’s face. She went to take a step. ‘But what happened to you, Johan? You’re bleeding.’
    ‘I’m warning you! Stay put!’ Danforth said.
    ‘What did this man do to you?’ she asked, throwing a furious glance at Danforth.
    ‘It’s not my blood,’ Captain Franz replied, before Danforth increased the stranglehold to stop the New Germanian from saying more.
    ‘You killed these Limiters,’ Rebecca Two accused Danforth, but she didn’t sound very sure of herself as she made out the headless body of the soldier across the road, and the other’s lethal wounds.
    ‘Your men had orders to execute both of us,’ Danforth told her.
    ‘Why?’ she cried.
    ‘Isn’t that a bit obvious? We’re both superfluous humans,’ Danforth replied. ‘Now I want you to keep your voice down, because you’re coming with me.’
    ‘I am not,’ Rebecca Two retorted.
    ‘You are if you want your boyfriend to live,’ Danforth threatened. He dug the tip of the scythe into Captain Franz’s throat.
    ‘No, don’t! Please don’t hurt him,’ Rebecca Two implored Danforth. ‘I’ll do what you say.’
    ‘And before we go, I need you to find something for me,’ Danforth said. He peered at the middle of the road. ‘It looks like a tooth.’
    ‘A tooth?’ Rebecca Two had just asked, when the ground under their feet shook and there was a cranium-rattling bang. The Rebecca twin was knocked from her feet by the blast, a huge cloud of dust billowing down the street towards her.
    ‘Dammit!’ Danforth swore, glancing at Rebecca Two where she had fallen. ‘Looks like it’s just you and me then, blondie,’ he whispered into Captain Franz’s ear.
    ‘Nein, Rebecca, nein, nein,’ the New Germanian was mumbling.
    ‘Don’t get your knickers in a twist; I doubt that she’s dead,’ Danforth said, as he pushed Captain Franz into the road where he’d spotted his miniature radio. Once he’d retrieved it, Danforth gave Rebecca Two another glance. ‘Shame I can’t take her with me. She’d have been an interesting subject for interrogation,’ he said with regret.
    Captain Franz was also looking at her with regret. ‘Nein, nein, nein,’ he was still mumbling, as Danforth frogmarched him quickly away.
    ‘There she blows,’ Parry said, as the pictures from the cameras flickered from the explosion. As they settled down, the viewsof what was left of GCHQ were obscured by palls of dust and smoke. The detonation had been timed for the moment the stream of Armagi finished their aerial entry and were inside the installation, and searching in vain for anyone to kill.
    ‘So zero fatalities on our side?’ Eddie asked.
    ‘I sincerely hope so. It was evacuated some weeks ago, except of course for the skeleton staff needed to keep up the appearance that it was business as usual,’ Parry replied. ‘And they should have escaped through the underground evacuation tunnels – there are several of th—’
    ‘Sir,’ one of the soldiers manning a laptop cut in. ‘We’ve just received a burp from Danforth. He’s asking to be extracted. And he says he’s got a hostage with him.’
    ‘The rest of you pack up your kit! We’re moving out now!’ Parry ordered, as he went over to the soldier. ‘Okay, where did Danforth say he was?’ he asked.
    Hermione and the Old Styx had been fortunate. They’d been tucked well into the side of the street when the blast hit, but it had still thrown both of them to the ground.
    Hermione was laughing as the air began to clear and she saw what little remained of GCHQ. The Doughnut had been reduced to a pile of rubble, the few parts of it still standing enveloped in flames. ‘So they planted charges and waited for us to turn up, then blew the whole place … is that the best that the poor little flesh bags can come up with?’ she said.
    ‘They saved us the effort of demolishing it,’ the Old Styx said, gazing at what was left.
    Hermione had stopped laughing and was instead making a clucking sound as