Tunnels 06 - Terminal

the high radiation, originated. Well, that’s what the French think anyway.’ Parry chuckled, then raised an eyebrow quizzically. ‘And the Yanks don’t know whether to give the lot of us Congressional Medals of Honour –– or to convict us all of some international crime against humanity. You’re on the list too, Will, for both of them.’
    Will laughed uneasily.
    Parry’s expression became serious. ‘You spent more time with Elliott than anyone else,’ he said, his expression serious. ‘I need you to tell me everything you can remember about her, and what happened near the end.’
    ‘Sure, but my memory’s a bit patchy after the Armagi nabbed me and I was brought to St Paul’s,’ Will replied. ‘And why is Elliott so important in all this anyway?’
    ‘Because quite a few of us are terrified by the implications if some sort of alien force has taken control of all our destinies,’ Parry replied.
    As Bartleby snored at his feet, Will recounted what had happened with Elliott during their time together in the centre of the world, about the discovery in the pyramid, and then the appearance of the tower. Parry didn’t interrupt once as Will talked about how he and Elliott had been transported back to the surface, and then had found the sceptre in an Egyptian sarcophagus.
    ‘So you can’t shed any light on precisely what was guiding Elliott through all this?’ Parry asked. ‘Because it seems that she knew exactly what to do at each step.’
    Will shook his head. ‘She didn’t know herself. Perhaps my dad would have called it a race memory.’ Will touched his forehead. ‘Something deep in here because of her Styx blood – something that had been woken up by the tower or the pyramid, I suppose. I don’t know how else to explain it.’
    Parry and Will chatted for a while longer until Mrs Burrows and the First Officer returned to the room. Then, as Parry stood up to leave, Bartleby was roused from his sleep. He immediately scampered over to the window where, with his paws on the sill, he seemed to be staring out at the horizon.
    ‘Silly kitten,’ Mrs Burrows said affectionately. ‘What’s got him so interested?’
    Groaning with the discomfort, Will was trying to raise himself up so that he could say goodbye properly to Parrywhen something caught his eye through the window too.
    ‘What is it?’ the First Officer asked.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Will mumbled, squinting. ‘But … but is it my imagination, or does the sun look smaller than usual?’
    Chuckling as he heard Will’s comment, Parry was about to leave, his hand on the door handle when his satphone went off. He stopped to take it out and look at it. ‘America calling,’ he said.
    ‘It does look smaller, you know,’ Will murmured, still transfixed by the pale circle in the sky. Bartleby hadn’t shifted from the window, as if his animal intuition was telling him something too.
    ‘Yes, Bob, what can I do for you?’ Parry asked.
    ‘That’s it!’ Will burst out. ‘That’s what she told me! The last thing Elliott said to me was that we were all going home … that she’d had to start some sort of recall .’
    ‘What do you mean, going home? Home where?’ Mrs Burrows asked.
    ‘NASA are saying what !’ Parry bellowed into his phone.
    ‘Elliott said she had to start a recall in order to stop the Styx and the Armagi,’ Will said. ‘She didn’t know where we were going, but she said this might happen. The whole planet, or spaceship, or whatever you want to call it, would begin to move.’
    ‘That all sounds a bit crazy, Will,’ Mrs Burrows said. ‘How can you really believe in this whole planet-as-spaceship theory anyway?’
    ‘You wouldn’t dismiss it so quickly if you’d seen what I’ve seen in the centre of the world. And no, it’s not so crazy if you think about it,’ Will replied. ‘Why do you think humans have always gone underground at the first sign of any trouble?Because that’s where we feel safe. Why do you think Sir Gabriel Martineau and all the Colonists built a city underground with the Styx?’ Will posed to his mother and the First Officer. ‘Because that’s our natural instinct. Because the centre of the world is where we all came from, and maybe for all these thousands of years we’ve just been trying to get home again.’
    Parry hadn’t finished his call with Bob, but had his hand over the microphone as he hurried to the window. Bartleby still had his paws up on the sill and regarded Parry