Tunnels 06 - Terminal

both.
    ‘Good to meet you, Captain,’ Parry said.
    ‘And you. I apologise for the inhospitable welcome. I hope our squad of marines didn’t play too rough with you,’ the captain replied. ‘Things being what they are, those procedures are now standard drill before anyone’s allowed on board. Even my crew members aren’t exempt when they return from dockside.’
    ‘Quite right,’ Parry said. ‘Last thing you want is a body bomber in a confined space like this.’
    The man from Homeland Security was clearly concerned about the time as he glanced repeatedly at his watch.
    ‘Looks like you gentlemen have somewhere to be,’ the captain said.
    ‘Yes, the comms link is up and running, Commander,’ the man in the blue suit said.
    One of the marines remained behind as the rest of the escort withdrew. Parry’s satphones and walking stick were given back to him before he and Chester were taken from the bridge and through several sections of the submarine. The blue suited man from Homeland Security ushered them into a surprisingly small cabin, which had a table in its centre on which three screens had been set up in a row, with some sort of camera mounted on top of the middle one. Parry told Chester to take a place at the table as he remained standing, talking to the blue suit in hushed tones.
    With no idea why he was there or what was about to happen, Chester leant back in his chair and slipped his hands into his jeans pockets. He looked from one screen to the other, each of which was showing the United States Naval emblem against a blue background.
    Taking a breath, he glanced at the marine stationed by the cabin door, who was holding his assault rifle at the ready position across his chest.
    ‘AR16,’ Chester said out loud, recognising the weapon from one of his videogames. The marine simply frowned at him, so Chester quickly looked away, nodding to himself and muttering, ‘Yes, AR16.’
    A tone chimed from a speaker somewhere in the room, andParry and the blue suit quickly took their places at the table beside Chester.
    The screens were blank except for the words Transmission Status with a countdown clicking away the seconds. As the countdown hit zero, the title changed to ENCRYPTION LEVEL ONE, then there was a moment of digital static as random blocks of colour flashed over the displays. The picture finally settled down to show a scene very similar to the one in Chester’s cabin – a desk or table top with three chairs arranged along it. A man holding several files of papers wandered into view.
    ‘Bob Harper,’ Parry said. ‘Good to see you after so long, you old devil!’
    As the man leant towards where the camera was mounted on top of the middle screen, Chester saw that he was balding and wore wire-rimmed glasses.
    ‘You too, Parry,’ Bob replied, but not as warmly as Chester might have expected if they were really such old friends. But Chester could tell that Bob had other things on his mind as he opened one of the files and extracted several documents, which he arranged very precisely on the tabletop. Then he looked up again. ‘Right, that’s me locked and loaded. And a very good afternoon to you all,’ he said, with more enthusiasm than before. He squinted at the blue suit on Parry’s right, then Chester. ‘And you must be, er, Chester Rause.’
    ‘Rawls,’ Parry put him right. ‘How are the kids, Bob?’
    There was a slight lag between the picture and the sound, which meant that Bob’s lips had stopped moving but his words were still being relayed. ‘Well, thank you. With one at MIT and the other a Wall Street attorney, I’ve given them notice that they can provide for their old pa when I finallyhang up my spurs. And you know Debbie would send you her love if I was able to tell her we were talking. When you’re next over this side of the pond, you must come to stay with us again, Parry.’ Bob rubbed his chin in a troubled way. ‘After all this has gone away.’
    ‘That’s a definite,’ Parry said.
    No one spoke for a moment as Bob cast an eye over his documents. ‘We’ve got a frosty but sunny day here in Washington. What’s the weather doing where you are, Parry?’
    ‘Oh, other than it’s the middle of the night here, Bob, do you need to ask? This is England; inevitably it’ll rain before morning,’ Parry replied drily.
    But Bob wasn’t listening. From the noise in the background, Chester could tell other people had entered the room. A well-built man, younger than