Tunnels 06 - Terminal

New Germanians, the Styx, even the bushmen back in the jungle. All of them.’ He glanced disconsolately up at all the ranks of dusty windows, then at the Sten in his hands. ‘I don’t know why we’re even bothering to bring weapons with us. There isn’t a single animal left that can hurt us. Apart from the fish, birds and the bloody flies, we’re all there is.’
    Elliott cried out, but Will didn’t catch what she’d said.
    ‘What is it?’ Will gasped, only now noticing that she’d moved to the end of the street. He lost his hat as he broke into a run to catch up with her.
    As he reached her at the corner, the huge plaza opened up before him, in its centre the government building constructed in the form of a colossal arch. He’d spotted the top of the archon a previous expedition into the city, but had never been this close to it before.
    In the roads that bordered and intersected the plaza, there were numerous crashed cars and lorries, while others had been driven up onto the pedestrian walkways and simply left there with their doors open. And then there were military vehicles and tanks dotted around the base of the arch that looked like they’d been abandoned in a hurry, their guns facing in random directions.
    ‘What’s the matter? What have you seen?’ Will asked.
    She didn’t answer, simply pointing.
    He followed her finger, making something out in the lee of one of the legs of the arch. It was sizeable, probably several hundred feet in height and, as he shielded his eyes from the sun, he realised it was a statue of some description.
    ‘You’ve got to be joking!’ he spluttered all of a sudden. ‘That can’t be who I think is!’
    ‘Oh, yes, it is. Have a closer look.’ Elliott passed Will her rifle so he could use the scope.
    It was a huge statue of Tom Cox.
    There he was, in all his glory, his nebulous outline fashioned in granite as black and pernicious as some giant rock waiting to hole a ship.
    His hood was raised to his growth-infested forehead so the grotesque face and pupil-less eyes were on full view. What was worse was that the eyes had been carved from some form of limestone or lighter stone, so it really did resemble the traitorous renegade from the Deeps who had helped the Styx.
    ‘Tom bloody Cox,’ Will said through clenched teeth, as he recalled how the monster of a man had cut him on top of the pyramid, then threatened to remove his fingers one by one.The statue was a reminder that Will could have done without.
    And Will wasn’t sure if he should be outraged or simply laugh because the sight of it was just so ludicrous.
    Elliott was similarly affected. It had been nothing for her to shoot Cox down and kill him; whilst in his clutches she’d suffered indescribably until Drake had rescued her from the man – if ‘man’ was the right word. ‘That’s so sick that only she … they could have dreamt it up,’ Elliott said, spitting out the words as if they were poison in her mouth.
    Will nodded because he knew better than anyone that Elliott was right – the Rebecca twins had been responsible for erecting the monument to Cox, merely because the fact that the fat Chancellor would have to look down at it every day from his official chambers had amused them.
    ‘If we can figure out how to work one of the tanks, we could use the statue for target practice,’ Will suggested, then ran a finger inside his shirt collar, which was soaked with sweat. ‘And if this is what you wanted us to see, can we go home now?’ he pleaded
    ‘I had no idea it was here,’ Elliott replied, then held up the map. ‘What’s unusual about this is the Limiters marked locations on it. They never do that – it was against their SOPs. And there seems to be something important marked not far from here.’
    ‘Really, who cares about what the Limiters did or why they did it?’ Will said, but not unpleasantly. ‘They’re all history now.’
    Elliott fixed him with one of her looks.
    Will let his shoulders droop. ‘Elliott, you talked me into coming to this horrible city for supplies and stuff we need. And now you want to go on a sightseeing trip. I didn’t sign up for this.’
    ‘What’s happened to you?’ Elliott said. ‘Remember when nobody could stop you sticking your nose into everything, because you were curious? You’ve really changed.’ She frowned. ‘What is it, Will? Are you getting old or something?’
    Will humphed. ‘I am … not … getting … old ,’ he enunciated