Free Tunnels 04, Closer by Roderick Gordon, Brian Williams Page B

above. And all around him in the walls were vaulted arches built of dirty yellow brick. He squinted in an effort to see the far end of the basement, where there was an illuminated area. As he and Eddie made their way toward it, he could make out a number of lockers and benches. But before they reached it, Drake's eyes had settled on something else.
    In one of the alcoves at the side of the basement stood a table. Stars, emitting a dim green light, were mounted on brass columns at each of its four corners. The light was similar to that of the luminescent orbs found everywhere in the Colony, but far more refined. Drake has seen these stars before; they were used by the Styx in their churches and shrines. Without reference to Eddie, Drake stepped toward the table, intrigued to see what lay on its surface.
    The title of the leatherbound volume was picked out in gold letters. Drake didn't need to read this to tell what it was. He already knew too well. "The Book of Catastrophes," he muttered under his breath, shaking his head with contempt.
    Eddie was silent.
    To Drake it symbolized all that was rotten about the Styx and their demagogic regime. For this book spelt out a doctrine that had committed the Colonists to centuries of what amounted to incarceration and a life of servitude in their underground city, with the promise that one day in the future the surface would be theirs again. The huge majority of these repressed people followed the teachings of the book without question, believing unreservedly that the Styx were their spiritual guardians. The reality was that the religious dogma so closely adhered to by the Colonists was simply a means to keep them in check. A mechanism to ensure their total and unquestioning obedience.
    When Drake finally spoke, it was with such vehemence that it was difficult to tell whether he was actually asking a question. "You've rejected the ways of the Styx, but you still keep this around? This chalice of poison?"
    "I keep it because it was given to me by the person you Topsoilers would call my father. He was a Limiter, like me, but as is the way with our society, I hardly knew him. He spent his whole life enforcing the book's laws."
    "The book's lies ," Drake spat.
    "That depends on your interpretation of the Book," Eddie countered. "If you believe that Topsoilers will one day bring about their own demise, and that we and the Colonists will be there to pick up the pieces and repopulate the Earth, then we will be the saviors of this planet, and of mankind."
    "The Styx... saviors?" Drake said, shaking his head.
    Eddie sighed. "I didn't bring you here for a debate over my convictions. Before you judge me, why don't you take a look at what I'm offering you?"
    Drake followed him to the far end of the cellar. The first thing he laid eyes on was a row of uniforms hanging from pegs. He recognized the distinctive gray and green combats which soldiers from the Styx Division wore, and next to them a couple of the Limiters' brown-striped coats. "'Rogues' gallery," Drake commented, then he spotted gas masks and even a whole Coprolite dust suit. "What's that doing here? A souvenir?" he asked, but his attention had already been drawn by something else on one of the benches.
    "A Dark Light!" Drake exclaimed, stepping over to it. It resembled an archaic desk lamp, with a dark purple bulb in a shade on the end of a flexible stalk. As he touched the small box with dials connected to the base of the lamp, he nodded to himself. The Styx used these Dark Lights to interrogate and brainwash their captives, and Drake was filled with excitement at the prospect of opening one of them up to see how it worked.
    Then, on the floor beside the bench, he noticed a rectangular object the size of a washing machine, but on four wheels. "Is this...?" he began to ask, guessing it was a larger version of the subsonic device the Styx had used on him and his men on Highfield Common.
    "An early prototype," Eddie replied. "As you saw for