Tunnels 06 - Terminal

Armagi was torn to pieces, body parts flopping on the ground all around where it had been standing.
    ‘… that doesn’t mean that I didn’t catch it, and tame it,’ Martha finished.
    ‘Tame it?’ Chester asked, not really taking in what she was saying.
    ‘Yes, I tamed the Bright,’ Martha said proudly.
    As the tornado stopped, Chester was left looking at not just a single Bright but a whole host of them. They were hovering in the air above the remains of the Armagi, their brilliant white scales reflecting the light.
    ‘Angels,’ Chester laughed, remembering what Dr Burrows had said about them. ‘But there are so many – not just one!’
    ‘Yes, seven.’ Martha whistled and waved with her good hand. In less than the blink of an eye, the Brights had swooped through the air to surround her and Chester, their wings making a gentle thrumming as they hovered in a circle, their haloes shining gently. There was something so repellentabout them, and yet they had a certain beauty too.
    ‘They’re amazing,’ Chester laughed.
    ‘They’re my protectors. And now they’re your protectors too.’ Martha stroked Chester’s head lovingly. ‘With them we’ll be safe wherever we go.’
    ‘But I don’t understand. How did you know where I was?’ the boy asked.
    Martha indicated the Brights with her hand. ‘Once you give them a scent, they can track it like hounds – even across hundreds of miles. That’s how I could always find you, wherever you went.’
    ‘Er, Chester,’ Parry said. He was still protecting Stephanie with an arm around her as both of them gawped at the spectacle of Martha and her Brights. ‘You’re not seriously thinking of leaving with that woman, are you? Not after what she put you through?’ he asked.
    Chester retrieved the shotgun, then went back to Martha and very pointedly slipped his arm through hers. ‘Yes, I am. When we were in Norfolk, she was just watching out for me – I understand that now. She really cares about me, which is more than you’ve ever done. Look what you did to my mum and dad.’
    Martha’s grime-covered face with all its broken veins was a picture of happiness as she listened to Chester. ‘Yes, I was only watching out for you. I knew you’d been under the Dark Light and were trying to signal to the Styx. I knew that.’
    ‘So this is goodbye,’ Chester said to Parry.
    ‘You might want to see to your friend,’ Martha suggested, as Old Wilkie groaned and began to stir. Stephanie immediately went to him, but Parry remained where he was, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Chester, at least take this with you, incase you need to get in contact.’ He tugged a satphone from his pocket and held it out.
    Chester didn’t say a word, but Parry lobbed it over to him, and he caught it.
    ‘It’s fully charged,’ Parry said. ‘Turn it and listen to the messages every so often, will you? Promise me you’ll do that?’
    Tucking the phone in his pocket, Chester still didn’t respond as, their arms linked, he and Martha turned in the direction of the sea and began to walk away, the seven Brights rotating around them like a carousel.

 
     
     
    Chapter Eight

    A s the small launch careered up the subterranean channel, scudding over the surface of the river, Jiggs’ main concern was that the hull would last the journey. It had taken some major repairs to patch up the damage the Limiters had inflicted on it and anything else that still floated before dumping the wrecked vessels in the bottom of the harbour. And Jiggs hardly had the ideal materials at his disposal to repair the launch – some time-expired resin and old fibreglass matting – but he’d got there in the end.
    And he was also very concerned for Drake, who was huddled in the bottom of the boat. Although, with much grumbling, Drake had eventually consented to wrapping himself in a poncho from the quartermaster’s stores, the spray was bitterly cold, and Jiggs himself had lost much of the sensation in his hands and face.
    Jiggs was still worrying about his friend and wishing that there were some way to stop and check on him when he felt the launch slow. It was decelerating as though it had met with resistance in the river.
    It had. Through his Russian monoscope, Jiggs caught aglimpse of a steel cable strung right across the width of the river channel. It was cleverly positioned, just high enough to avoid any flotsam, but at perfect height to snag a passing craft.
    As the cable reached breaking