After what seemed like hours but was probably only minutes, Charlie and Carmen found themselves at another junction, deep inside the ventilation system. Yet more ventilation shafts opened on to the chamber, presenting yet more choices to them.

"Up?" Charlie asked Carmen as he rested his hands on one of another set of rungs leading up into the dark.

"Why not?" Carmen answered with a nervous, exhausted laugh. "I mean, where are we going, Charlie? Where does this lead?"

"Dunno, but it's better than staying here. I don't know why, but always heading to the upper level of these shafts seems right to me."

"Better keep going then," Carmen sighed and pushed passed Charlie to go up the rungs, taking over the lead position.

Charlie knew how she felt. The ventilation shafts had opened out some but they were certainly not large enough to crawl through easily. Squeezing through each shaft was a torture of discomfort and scraped skin, their bodies twisted into unlikely shapes to bring relief to aching knees and joints. The refreshing bath that they had enjoyed in Suzuki's quarters seemed like a lifetime ago. Now their failing flashlights revealed new layers of black filth on their faces. Their clothes were plastered to their skin with sweat as the heat of the stuffy shafts, combined with their efforts to keep moving, worked to create a sauna-like atmosphere in the enclosed spaces.

They crawled in silence, save for the panting of their breath, wasting no energy on conversation. Metre after agonising metre passed in a monotony of agony, worming their way through each shaft before they could, at last, stretch their weary limbs in another junction chamber. One junction after another passed them by as they made yet another hop up to another level and continued on their way.

"Where do those go?" Carmen gasped as they found themselves in totally different junction chamber. This time there was no higher level to climb to. Instead the shafts lead off on each side of the chamber through much larger cylindrical apertures.

"I don't know why I feel this way but I just have a feeling that we head to the far right," Charlie panted as he wiped the stinging beads of sweat from around his eyes.

"Why?"

"I don't know! If I knew that I'd have said, wouldn't I?"

"Chill out, Charlie, it's not as if I have a better idea!"

They continued on their way, experiencing some relief from the slightly different postures needed to negotiate the bigger shafts. Instead of squirming around like worms, they now could shuffle forward in a low crouch. The relief was only temporary since the discomfort simply transferred from their knees and elbows to the small of their backs.

"What's that?" Carmen said.

"What's what?"

"That! There! Did you here it?"

"No! Where? There? Yes? Yes, I hear it!"

"Then shut up so I can hear it!"

From somewhere up ahead they could hear voices. Harsh voices echoed indistinctly down the cylindrical pipe to their ears. Curious, knowing what they had found and with a sinking feeling deep inside, the two children crept ahead as quietly as they could. Searching for a ventilation grill, they had to go some way before they found one set in the floor of their shaft.

Kneeling by the much heavier grade grill, compared to the smaller one they had removed to escape Suzuki's jail, they peered down onto a huge chamber. Several storeys below them stretched a wide expanse of concrete. To one side of their position they could glimpse a mysterious cuboid structure as big as a house. What caught their attention was not this huge object, but what lay immediately below their position.

The unmistakeable pale blonde head of the woman called Savanarolova shone like a distant star in the low light of the enormous room. Eager to hear what was being said the children craned their heads towards the voices. They were horrified to discover that the others that they could hear were their fathers.

***

"I really don't know why you bothered, Rick, I really don't," Savanarolova said, cradling her, now unholstered, Skorpion in the crook of her left arm. She had secured the claymore detonator after Munro had taken care of Rick and George's guns. "You try so hard, yet you only lose. Why do you bother? It would really interest me to know before I kill you."

Rick grimaced through bloodied teeth. Munro had spent sometime working him over with his fists after relieving Rick of his gun. "Oh, yeah, Iphigenia," he mumbled, "Oh, I really want to enlighten you. Can't think of anything else I'd rather do right now."

"What are you doing here, Rick? Why have you followed me?" Savanarolova toyed with the Skorpion as she spoke, her fingers played with the safety catch, flicking it on and off. "Why do I feel that your presence is a little more than a coincidence?"

"No dice, Iphigenia, you'll get nothing out of me. There's no point carrying this on any longer. You won, just get it over with." Rick hung his head; his eyes cast low, unable to meet Savanarolova's glacial stare.

"Oh, no, there's no getting out of here that easily," she laughed. "When I'm good and ready to send you into the next world, I will gladly wave you goodbye. Until then, I want answers to my questions. Listen carefully, Rick. I will ask a question once. If you don't answer immediately I will have Munro cut off a piece of your fat friend. There will be no second chances."

Rick eyes blazed with helpless defiance, "You know, Iphigenia, you really are a..."

***

Carmen's nails pinching into his arm almost made Charlie cry out as her hand closed around him in vice-like shock.

"She can't!" Carmen hissed. The little light that passed through the grill below cast a strange grid of shadows across her face that concealed much of her distress apart from around her wide, fear-glazed eyes. "She can't do that! We can't let her! Oh, Charlie, what are we going to do?"

Charlie's mind raced. What could they do? They were just a couple of scrawny kids ranged against two armed killers. What could they do? What...what could they do if there were fewer killers? What could their dads do if there were fewer killers? A thought struck him like a thunderclap. It would be risky but things couldn't be any worse than they were right now.

He looked down through the grill at the top of Savanarolova's head.

"Carmen, just let up a little on my arm, will you. And pass me the survival kit."

***

"So why are you here on Solitude?"

"We were hired by Winthrop-Smythe to ferry his men here."

"Why didn't you leave when you made the last trip here?"

"The Cat, the Catalina, the flying boat, had engine trouble. We had it fixed but we decided not to leave until the morning since night take-offs from the sea rarely end well."

"Why did you come ashore and spy on Winthrop-Smythe and his men?"

"Wouldn't you? We were stuck, we heard gunfire, I wanted to make sure that my child was safe, that my livelihood was not going to be jeopardised by having ferried some criminals here. How wrong was I?"

"How long have you been here, in this part of the world?"

"Since...since soon after Huw's death."

Savanarolova was silent for a moment and stood looking down at Rick. Slowly, she brought the Skorpion up from her side and lined it up on the top of Rick's head. She flicked the safety off, the metallic snap carrying across the Production Floor, even to where Carmen and Charlie knelt as horrified spectators.

"No," she said quietly, "Perhaps not." Sliding the safety catch back into position with another audible click, she dropped her arm back to her side. "What I really want to know is how you knew about this place?"

"I didn't! Your mob of murderous thugs chased us from here to next week! All we could do was try to escape."

"So you escaped directly to a secret war-time bunker that just so happens to be exactly the place I am heading to?"

"Yes."

"Munro, cut off Hala's left ear. Perhaps, Rick, you'd like to stop lying to me? Then I won't have Munro cut off his right ear too."

"WAIT!" Rick yelled. "Wait, please! I'm telling you the truth. We didn't know you were heading here before we arrived on the island." Rick's mind raced as he begged Savanarolova. He had to tell her something, she just wouldn't believe the truth.

Munro whipped out an unpleasant looking hunting knife and stepped quickly behind George, with his back to the Confinement Chamber. He hooked his arm around George's neck and twisted the big Tongans head to the right, exposing his ear from beneath his long hair. George grunted and struggled but it was in vain. Red faced with the strain of trying to breathe in the choke hold, he scrabbled at Munro's huge forearm in an attempt to loosen the Scot's grip.

***

"Make sure you don't miss, Carmen!" Charlie exclaimed rather too loudly.

Even though his voice carried down to the Production Floor, everything happened too quickly for Savanarolova and Munro to react. Charlie had unscrewed the heavy ventilation grill using the multi-tool from the survival kit and Carmen had held it in place with her fingers. Convinced that something dreadful was about to happen the children had decided to take a chance that they could prevent it happening.

She let go of the ventilation grill.

It didn't have far to fall and should have struck its intended target without any warning at all. However, something made Savanarolova look up - perhaps Charlie's voice or perhaps a fleeting shadow that caught her eye as the grill fell. Regardless, the heavy gauge steel mesh and its weighty frame caught her square on just as she threw up an arm to protect her head.

Savanarolova shrieked with shock and pain. Munro looked up in surprise, momentarily loosening his grip on George, who managing to find enough purchase on the Scot's arm, wormed his way free of the choke hold, grabbing Munro's knife hand in the process and preventing it edging its way further to his exposed ear.

Rick pounced on the fallen woman and grabbed her gun, as well as the booby trap trigger. He whirled round, and levelled the machine pistol at the Scot and yelled, "Back off! Back off now or I'll put one between your eyes!"

Munro's dark eyes flashed with rage and his lips pulled back in an animal like snarl. He looked as if he was going to ignore Rick but at the last moment, just as the American was beginning to squeeze the trigger, he released George and walked backwards a couple of steps, putting his back to the Confinement Chamber, never once letting his eyes stray from Rick's own.

Carmen sobbed. Hands held over her face, she wept with relief. Charlie was slightly embarrassed. Not knowing what to do, he rubbed his hand rather ineffectually on Carmen's back and muttered, "C'mon, Carmen. It's OK. Nothing's happened. Your Dad's OK. Look, just look!"

She did look and then turned her attention back to Charlie. If he had been able to see her face in the poor light he would have recoiled. As it was he simply grew hot with shame and resentment as he her tongue lashed him instead.

"What was I thinking?" she yelled. "I could have killed us all with that stunt! We couldn't possibly have known it would work! It's not like in the stories, Charlie! People get killed and we're not superheroes here to save the day!"

"Hey, it worked, all right!" he protested. "Your dad's free!"

"Yes, but we didn't know that before!"

"Hey, kids!" George's voice boomed up to them from below. "Can you stop arguing and get outta there?"

The two children glared at each other. "We can't get down from here," Charlie called down as he continued to hold Carmen's death stare, determined not to yield to her, convinced he was in the right of it.

"Walk along the pipe you're in and you'll come to another ventilation grill. It's above a catwalk. You should be able to drop down onto it and make your way to us here," George replied. "Quit arguing and get a move on."

"Coming?" Charlie asked Carmen sulkily.

"S'pose," muttered the girl.

---

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