Tunnels 06 - Terminal

happen.’
    ‘Thanks – that’s made it all clear …’ Will said, cocking an eyebrow and grinning, ‘… as mud.’
    ‘I know it sounds crazy.’ Elliott looked at her feet as she rubbed her forehead. ‘And I feel as though there’s more in here, although I can’t tell you exactly what right now.’
    ‘There is? But you must have some idea what it is?’ Will shot back at her.
    She laughed with the strangeness of it all. ‘I won’t know what I know until I need to know it.’
    ‘Can you run that by me again?’ Will chuckled, but he was shaking his head in confusion at the same time. He turned to the column where the door had remained open. ‘But maybe we ought to find out what Jürgen and his brother are doing upstairs. That’s if I’m allowed in the lift, and don’t have to take the long way up like the rest of us lowly humans.’
    Elliott punched him gently in the chest, laughing. ‘Come on, lowly human,’ she said.
    Predictably Woody wasn’t going to be left out of the running, and slipped inside the lift too.
    Elliott touched a plain panel, sliding her hand up it, and the door immediately closed.
    Will was peering around him as he muttered, ‘Safe as houses.’
    ‘What?’ Elliott said.
    ‘No, nothing – I just remembered how much Chester hated lifts,’ Will explained. ‘After that dodgy one in the Colony.’
    ‘I hope he’s okay, wherever he is,’ Elliott said.
    ‘So do I, but come on – Woody and I are here and waiting – why haven’t you hit the up button?’ Will asked.
    ‘I already have,’ she said.
    The door slid back to reveal Jürgen and Werner having what appeared to be a heated exchange while Karl listened in, his eyes wide with alarm. The two New Germanian brothers instantly fell silent, their expressions quite comical as they watched Elliott step from the lift with Will and the bushman on either side of her.
    ‘Oh, hi,’ Werner said.
    ‘Elliott,’ Jürgen cut in before his brother could say more. ‘I suppose it’s asking a lot, but would you mind proving to these two,’ he said, indicating Werner and Karl, ‘that I wasn’t hallucinating up here? Could you give them a demonstration of what you can do on the next floor up?’
    Will was outraged on Elliott’s behalf. ‘She’s not a performing monkey, you know!’ he exploded, repeating a phrase he’d heard Dr Burrows use once. ‘I don’t think it’s fair for you t—’
    ‘No problem,’ Elliott interrupted him, moving towards the flight of stairs that led to the uppermost level of the tower. As soon as she was at the top, she went straight to the small console and laid a hand on its surface.
    They all watched in stunned silence as the circular wall was again filled with multiple images of Earth, of the ink-blue oceans and the wispy clouds up in the atmosphere and the brown-greens of the land masses.
    Will was again mesmerised. ‘I don’t understand. These views have to be from something floating around the Earth, like a satellite, or satellites … but why wouldn’t they have been discovered by now? Especially because they must havebeen there for donkey’s years,’ he reasoned out loud, turning to the New Germanians. However, they seemed to be too stunned to say anything at all.
    Karl had taken his father’s hand as the two watched in wonder, and Werner was laughing and shaking his head and saying ‘How is this possible?’ over and over as they watched the images of the outside world that none of them had ever actually been to.
    Then Werner stopped. ‘But is this really from now ?’
    Will was standing beside Elliott as she touched different areas of the console, the blue lines and symbols glowing as her fingertips danced over them. ‘Sure it is,’ she answered.
    ‘Then can you show me Germany, please?’ Werner requested.
    Elliott had been moving her fingers over the console, but now she leant towards Will. ‘You’ll have to help me find it.’
    Will realised then that of course she wouldn’t be familiar with the world’s topography – why would she, when she’d spent virtually her whole life in the Colony and the Deeps?
    ‘There,’ Will said, pointing. ‘Close in on that area where the sun’s setting.’
    The whole of central Europe now filled the walls, although to the west a dark shadow was advancing across it as evening set in.
    ‘And now zoom in on that area …’ he directed her, pointing at part of the wall, ‘… but more over to the left.’
    ‘Look Jürgen,