فصل 72

CHAPTER 72

THE WOMAN LOOKING BACK

KARL, PADDING ALONG JUST BEHIND Magill in the tunnel, emitted a low growl. Magill stopped and signaled for the others to wait. He then crept ahead, disappearing into the darkness past the next dangling light. Several minutes passed, and he returned.

“Men ahead, in a locked cell. Two guards. We took care of them.”

They moved forward, walking past the guards, who lay bound and gagged next to the tunnel wall. They arrived at the cell, little more than a cramped cage. Seven filthy, haggard men huddled together on the dirt floor eyeing the visitors warily, saying nothing.

“Who are you?” said Patrick.

No response.

“Who is keeping you prisoner?”

Still no response. Patrick turned to the others. “They’re too weak or too scared to answer,” he said. “We’ll have to tend to them later. We need to move on.”

“Agreed,” said Ted.

“Can’t we at least let them out?” said Wendy.

Magill examined the lock, then the bars. “Might be able to,” he said. “But we’d have to pull this wall out, and that might collapse the tunnel.”

“Wendy, we’ll get them out,” said Patrick. “But for now we need to keep going.”

They started forward again. After about a hundred feet, Karl growled again, and the group stopped. Magill crept forward to check, returning quickly.

“A woman,” he said.

Before anyone could stop her, Wendy had brushed past the others and was running ahead.

“Wait!” called Ted. But Wendy wasn’t listening. Reaching the cell door, she grabbed the bars and pressed her face against them. She gasped at what she saw—a gaunt, dirt-smeared face, framed by filthy, matted hair. Wendy would not have recognized the woman looking back at her except for the brilliant green eyes—eyes identical to her own.

“Mother!” she cried, reaching through the bars.

“Wendy! Oh, Wendy,” sobbed Molly, grabbing her daughter’s hands and clinging to them to keep from collapsing to her cell floor. “But how…how did you …”

“There’s a group of us,” said Wendy. “Peter is here.”

“Peter?” said Molly.

Peter’s head appeared in the window next to Wendy’s.

“Peter!” Molly exclaimed. “Oh my…It’s been so long!”

“Hello, Molly,” said Peter, hoping his expression didn’t betray his shock at Molly’s appearance.

Molly peered through the bars at the others. She knew Ted and Neville, and vaguely remembered Magill. Ted introduced her to Patrick. Surveying the group, she said, “But…what are you all doing here?”

Wendy quickly explained the group’s search for the starstuff Cache, and how their visit to Westminster Abbey had led them to the Underground and the secret tunnel. Molly listened intently, occasionally interrupting with questions.

When Wendy was finished, Molly said, “Von Schatten is going after the starstuff tonight. They’ve gathered farther down the tunnel, the whole lot of them. They’ve got James.”

“James!” said Peter.

“Yes,” said Molly. “He’s one of the prisoners they’ve been using to dig the tunnel.”

There was an insistent tapping sound from farther on in the tunnel. Hearing it, Molly said to Wendy, “That’s your father. He’s in the next cell, that way. Go and see him, but come back. We’ve got to make a plan.”

Wendy dashed down the tunnel and found her father. His condition was as shocking as her mother’s had been: The strapping, well-dressed George Darling was now a skeleton of a man in rags, his face covered by a thick beard. Tears spilled from his eyes as he held her hands through the bars.

“Wendy,” he said, his voice breaking, “I’m so sorry to have doubted you. Can you ever forgive me?”

“Oh, Father …” began Wendy, but when she tried to say more her words turned into sobs. For a few moments they simply clung to each other through the bars. Then, willing herself to be strong, Wendy wiped her tears and, as quickly as she could, explained the situation to her father, as she had for her mother. When she’d finished, she said, “We’re making a plan. I’ll be back in a moment.” Reluctantly, her father released her hands, and she ran back to the others, who were deep in discussion.

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

It was Peter who answered. “We’re going to go down the tunnel and try to stop them,” he said.

“How?” said Wendy.

Peter looked around at the others, then said, “We’re going to figure that part out when we get there.”

“Neatly summarized,” said Patrick.

“What about my parents?” said Wendy. “We’ve got to get them out.”

There was an uncomfortable pause, then Molly said, “That will have to wait for the moment, Wendy.”

“But why?” said Wendy.

“We’ve no key, for one thing,” said Magill, pointing to the lock on the cell door.

“Karl could pull the door off its hinges!” protested Wendy.

“Indeed he could,” said Magill. “The problem is, your mum and dad have been weakening the tunnel walls.” He pointed to the support post next to Molly’s cell door. “If we pull their doors out, the tunnel will collapse.”

“We were planning to bring it down tonight,” said Molly. “We were going to wait until von Schatten was coming back out.”

“But it would collapse on you, too!” said Wendy.

Her mother said nothing, and suddenly Wendy understood that her parents had been planning to sacrifice themselves to stop von Schatten.

“No!” she cried. “You can’t! You—”

She was silenced by the massive right hand of Magill, clamped over her mouth.

“Not so loud,” he said, politely. “All right?” Wendy nodded, and he released her.

“You can’t…” she began again, but Molly—now in the role of mother—raised her hand, and Wendy stopped instantly.

“Wendy,” said Molly, “we’ve worked out a plan that might get us all out of this. It’s not ideal, but it’s our best chance. It won’t help for you to waste time arguing, so please just listen, all right?”

“Yes, Mother,” said Wendy.

“Good,” said Molly brightly. “Now here’s what we’re going to do.”