Tunnels 06 - Terminal

this might happen.’
    ‘Better get out of sight now,’ the portly man said, and Drake and Jiggs followed his example as, with much grunting, he lowered himself down onto the ground. Once there, he clicked his fingers, and another man in the group immediately came over with a holdall containing some quite sophisticated telescopes on small tripods and handed them out. As Drake raised his eyebrows at his scope, the portly man explained,‘Got some die-hard twitchers in our village – you know, bird-watchers – so we’re always spoilt for scopes.’
    As the car could be heard starting up, the portly leader explained, ‘We leave the engine running by weighing down the accelerator – nothing too loud, but if they’re on the trail, it’ll bring them in quickly, like mice to cheese. You see, the glass beasts always seem to travel in pairs, and if we don’t stop them here, they just keep looking till they find someone.’
    The men on the road were quickly moving away from it now. ‘Focus your scope on the car, then keep an eye out around it. You don’t want to miss the grand entrance,’ the portly leader said, chuckling. ‘Bit different from watching sandpipers over at Blakeney Point.’
    Then, as they waited, in a muted and grim voice he began to recount to Drake and Jiggs what had been happening on the surface; about how the police and army seemed to have disbanded, and how all the utilities – electricity, gas, telecoms – all of it had simply stopped. ‘You know, you two remind me of some curious people we had through the village a while back,’ the man said suddenly. ‘They didn’t seem to know where they were either. And why they just came to mind is because they were both plastered with mud and appeared as though they’d just been pulled out of the River Wensum, same as you.’
    Drake raised an eyebrow. ‘What did these people look like?’
    ‘They strolled into my village shop early one morning before opening. I said to my wife at the time that I had a feeling something was in the offing – and it wasn’t long before all these funny goings-on started, and the country went to pot.’
    ‘Can you describe them?’ Drake asked.
    The portly leader thought for a second. ‘There was a lad, wild-looking, with long hair as white as snow, and an older man, also with very long hair, who appeared to be his fath—’
    ‘The older one wore glasses?’ Drake interjected, a big smile spreading across his face. ‘What sort of shop did you say you have?’
    The portly man pulled an unhappy face. ‘ Had . Afraid I was forced to close it after I couldn’t get any deliveries through, but it was the village shop – you know, a convenience store with food and newspapers and …’
    Drake had begun to chuckle. ‘So you sold chocolate. Did, by any chance, the older of the two stuff himself silly on it that morning? Did he? Because the Doc always loved chocolate.’
    ‘He did!’ the portly man burst out. ‘He bought several bars, and I saw him scoffing them outside on the pavement.’
    ‘Will and Dr Burrows,’ Drake told Jiggs, who was looking confused, ‘when they first travelled up from the fallout shelter.’
    The portly man was also looking rather confused. ‘But how did y—’
    ‘Shhh,’ someone behind them hissed. ‘The first beast has landed.’
    Jiggs had been concentrating on the car as the other two spoke, and had spotted the Armagi swooping down from over the trees and alighting close to it.
    And Drake caught sight of the second one as it sprang from the river flowing under the bridge. ‘My God – there! That’s an Armagi!’ Drake whispered in horror. ‘Adapted to live in water.’
    ‘And the other is obviously capable of flight,’ Jiggs added.
    ‘They can alter themselves,’ the portly man said. ‘But watch this.’
    The two Armagi approached the car, one with its wings folded behind its back, the other looking like liquid crystal as the water on it reflected the bright sunlight. There was a moment when they turned to face each other over the roof of the vehicle, as if they were communicating.
    ‘And zambo!’ the portly man murmured.
    The member of the group hidden in the field applied a current to the wires running to the car’s full tank of petrol. The explosion lifted the vehicle clean off the ground, the two Armagi blasted into pieces by the huge fireball.
    The oddest thing was that for the briefest instant both Drake and Jiggs caught a glimpse not of the transparent