Tunnels 06 - Terminal

Franz said indignantly. ‘And anyway, she’s more than a girl. The Styx grow up faster th—’
    Parry held up a hand. ‘For God’s sake, man, I’ve heard enough.’ He noticed that Eddie and one of his men were waiting in the entrance of the tent.
    ‘Stay there,’ Parry said unnecessarily to Captain Franz, then rose from his chair, putting more weight than usual on his walking stick due to his fatigue. Danforth followed him to where the two men were waiting.
    ‘Pretty boy’s all yours. See if you can get anything useful out of him,’ Parry said in a low voice to Eddie, glancing over his shoulder at the blond New Germanian who was contemplating the burning tip of his cigarette.
    ‘So he hasn’t said anything useful?’ Eddie asked.
    ‘No, unless you’re interested in ladies’ fashion or the Styx’s predilection for luxury cars,’ Danforth chimed in.
    Parry shook his head ‘He’s not at all clear about where he’s been, and all the places he has pointed us to are historic. TheStyx have long since vacated them. He’s also completely deluded about that Rebecca twin. I don’t know how much of it’s because of the neural damage from being over-Darklit, or from his infatuation for her.’
    ‘The infatuation is genuine?’ Eddie asked.
    ‘Seems to be,’ Parry replied, his grey brows hiking with incredulity.
    ‘So you want me to use more extreme methods on him,’ Eddie offered.
    Parry nodded. ‘But don’t rough him up too much, because he might come in handy if we need some leverage on the Rebecca twin,’ Parry replied, and he and Danforth left the tent.
    Danforth stopped with surprise as he noticed the row of black helicopters in the field beside their temporary camp. ‘When did they show up?’ he asked.
    ‘While we were in with Captain Franz,’ Parry replied. ‘Five of the very latest US Sikorsky UH-60 gunships – a generous peace offering from my friend Bob. The Americans have been moving more of their fleet over to our side of the Atlantic, and these have just been delivered to us straight from one of their carriers.’
    ‘I didn’t hear them arrive,’ Danforth said.
    Parry rubbed his hands together in anticipation. ‘That’s rather the point. They’re the latest word in stealth, with highly damped engines and filtered exhaust manifolds, so the heat trace is minimal. I reckon Bob has only been so generous because he wants to see if the Armagi can hear them.’
    Danforth’s eyes flashed with interest. ‘Maybe I can suggest a use for them right away.’ They saw a soldier emerging from one of the many tents with a small device in his hands. ‘If myapprentice over there has built me the scanner I asked for to track the signal from that VLF beacon I picked up before, maybe we should find out who’s at the end of it.’
    Parry was thoughtful for a moment. ‘Yes, if it’s one of our team back from the inner world, then maybe – just maybe – they’ll have something that can help us.’ He looked up at the ominous clouds collecting in the sky. ‘Right now, I’d settle for even a minor miracle.’

 
     
     
    Chapter Seventeen

    E lliott seemed to have no hesitation when it came to choosing which way they needed to go, although there was the odd occasion when she simply stood there, as if listening to a voice that Will couldn’t hear. Then she was off again, always keeping him right at her side, as they both ducked from doorway to doorway along the street, scouring the darkness ahead for Limiters or Armagi.
    ‘I recognise this,’ Will told her as they came to Euston Road, and began across it using the vehicles as cover. And then later, as they continued in their painstakingly slow stop-start way, they came to a place that triggered a flood of memories for him.
    ‘Russell Square,’ he told Elliott, as they turned into it. Then they saw something that halted them in their tracks. Right in front of them, in the middle of the road, was the tail section of a passenger aircraft. From the way the piece of fuselage had crashed down on top of the traffic, with many twisted and scorched cars underneath, it had happened when the troubles had only just started and people were trying to leave London as quickly as they could. And leave the countryitself, if they could find a seat on an aeroplane.
    Will gazed at the burnt and peeling paint on the blue-and-white tail fins, and was only stirred into action when Elliott nudged him on. They went diagonally across the square, moving