Tunnels 06 - Terminal

way,’ Jiggs said instantly. ‘If you’re seriously considering using that phone through there to make a call, you can stop right now. If they haven’t cut the line, the Styx will be monitoring any traffic over it – you even as much as pick up the receiver, they’ll suss that we’re down here.’ His voice became gentler. ‘Drake, really, don’t go near it. You’re not thinking this through, are you?’
    ‘No, maybe not, but I haven’t got the luxury of time anylonger,’ Drake said, as he rose to his feet. ‘The thought of dying is enough to make one impatient.’
    ‘Why don’t you catch some shut-eye while I finish the repairs to the boat?’ Jiggs suggested.
    ‘No, I want to give you a hand,’ Drake replied, holding up his good arm with a smile. ‘Even if it’s only one hand.’ He glanced in the direction of the bunk beds. ‘I’m not quite ready for the scrap heap. Not while I’ve still got some life left in me.’

    ‘No question that he’s going straight to it,’ Elliott observed, as she sought out the small form of Woody trudging deliberately towards the tower. He wasn’t the only thing moving in the place as flies and insects with bizarre appearances buzzed furiously in the air, and an army of birds had already ventured back after the tumult. These birds were clearly having a heyday as they flocked to the fields of newly turned soil to gorge themselves on the exposed grubs and worms.
    Elliott, Will and Jürgen had wasted no time in following after the bushman, but it wasn’t that easy to move at any speed over the ground. Not only was it very uneven, but as the sun dried out the clods of earth, they were crumbling away and shifting like sand under their feet.
    Shielding his eyes, Jürgen squinted as he tried to see the other pyramids through the sun-hazed air. ‘It’s incredible when you think that this was all solid jungle only moments ago,’ he said.
    But Will’s mind was elsewhere as he tried to make sense of what they’d just witnessed. ‘So the pyramids must have been covered in the stones with the carvings on them at some point after the basic structures had been built,’ he reasoned out loud, turning to Jürgen.
    ‘But the oldest of the carved stones were at least three thousand years old,’ Jürgen replied.
    ‘Right …’ Will said thoughtfully. ‘But my dad’s theory was that the Lost City of Atlantis has been in this world all along, and he could still be right. The Atlanteans might have built on top of the original structures?’
    ‘That’s a possibility,’ Jürgen agreed, giving a small shrug.
    ‘And so the bushmen, the descendants of the Atlanteans, continued the tradition of recording their culture and history on the pyramids,’ Will went on.
    Elliott was forging ahead, as if she wasn’t the slightest bit interested in the discussion the other two were having. Will had still been talking, but trailed off as he and Jürgen caught up with her. She’d come to a stop where a fifteen-foot-deep trench blocked their way.
    ‘Incredible. One of the giant trees must have been ripped out here,’ Jürgen said, as they all regarded the bottom of the depression where there was a jumble of roots, some of them huge.
    ‘You both think you’re so clever, but you’re actually unbelievably stupid,’ Elliott said sourly.
    ‘Huh?’ Will said.
    ‘Well, who gives a toss about the Atlanteans now?’ she snapped. ‘Why aren’t you asking yourselves what could tear out a bloody big tree in the blink of an eye, and chuck it and the rest of the jungle so far away we can’t even see it?’
    Will was surprised by her outburst, but made no comment as he lowered himself down into the hole where he began to kick at the roots and dirt.
    ‘Some form of traction beam?’ Jürgen answered when Will remained silent.
    ‘Traction beam?’ she repeated. ‘Where would you find oneof those – whatever it is – round here? Was it left by whoever built the original pyramids? Who was that, then?’ she asked. ‘And, tell me, why did that pyramid underneath look so new?’
    Nobody replied, Will continuing to scrape away at the dirt with his toecap. ‘There’s something solid down here,’ he said after a moment.
    Jürgen slid down into the depression too, and together they worked at uncovering a whole series of thick conduits or pipes running side by side. Roots were growing between them, and Will squatted down to tug out handfuls of the smaller ones. ‘Look at this,’ he