Free Tunnels 04, Closer by Roderick Gordon, Brian Williams

covered with thick polythene sheets. He lifted aside the sheets to reveal a metal door in the floor, set into a concrete surround.
    It was obvious to Drake that this was a recent addition to the building, as the surface of the door was without any sign of corrosion, and the concrete around it was not yet stained by the damp. Eddie bent down and flicked open a cover on a keypad at the side of the door. He began to enter a sequence, pausing to speak when he was halfway through. "If you don't follow this exactly, the whole place is rigged to blow."
    "A man after my own heart," Drake said, as Eddie entered the final digits and the thick door clunked open a fraction. The he pulled it fully up, and Drake followed closely behind him as they descended a short flight of steps.
    "I think you're going to like this," the thin man said.

6

    "I'm telling you, it was an aircraft," Dr. Burrows insisted.
    "Well, I didn't hear anything," Will replied, edging further out from the cover of the huge trees to peer at the bright white sky above. "Did you?" he asked Elliott, who had joined him in scrutinizing the stretch of sky. She shook her head.
    "Well, it's no use looking for it now," Dr. Burrows grumbled. "It flew off in an easterly direction."
    Will turned to his father. "And you think it was a what ?"
    "I told you -- a Stuka -- a German bomber from the Second World War."
    Will frowned. "Are you sure?"
    "Of course I'm sure," Dr. Burrows retorted.
    "Dad, maybe you nodded off on the side of the pyramid and dreamt the whole thing? I mean, you've been out in the sun for quite a--"
    "Don't patronize me, Will!" Dr. Burrows barked. "I'm not tired, and not suffering from heat stroke. I know my limits, and I know what I saw. I saw a Stuka, clear as day, flying about half a mile away."
    Will shrugged. Where they were, in this "world within a world" in the middle of the planet, complete with its own ever-burning sun, there wasn't much that could surprise him.
    Aside from the fact that the lower gravity meant that he, Elliott and Dr. Burrows had almost superhuman powers, and were able to jump unfeasible distances and lift phenomenal weights, he was quite ready to believe just about anything. Much of the land of this apparently virgin world was either covered in Amazonian rainforest, with trees as high as skyscrapers, or grasslands on which free-ranging herds of animals roamed. Will had spotted quaggas, rather quaint half-horse, half-zebra creatures extinct for over a hundred years back in the outer world, and only a few days ago he and his father had stumbled upon a herd of the largest cattle he'd ever seen. "Aurochs!" Dr. Burrows had proclaimed, then proceeded to tell him how the last of these magnificent creatures had died out in Poland in the thirteenth century. But, even more amazing than this, there were also saber-toothed tigers, if Elliott's sighting was to be believed.
    However, these prehistoric animals were all a long way from what Dr. Burrows was now adamant he'd seen. Will drew in a breath and scratched his head. "But Dad, a Stuka ? Are you sure? What did it look like? Did it have markings on it or any sort of camouflage?" he asked.
    "It was too far away to make out that sort of detail," Dr. Burrows replied. "One can only wonder how it got into this world, and what it's still doing here. And you have to consider the full implications -- this aircraft is just the tip of a very curious iceberg."
    "Iceberg?" Elliot asked. Her whole life had been spent underground and the word had no meaning to her.
    "Yes, iceberg," Dr. Burrows repeated, not stopping to explain it to her. "There must be a strip for the plane to take off and to land, fuel to power it, and engineers to service it and keep it airworthy. That's a whole bunch of people in addition to the pilot."
    "Engineers?" Will mumbled.
    "Of course, Will. The Stuka is a type of aircraft that's over sixty years old! Any aircraft needs regular maintenance, particularly one of that age."
    "So it's from