Chapter 37: Tunnels

“No one’s here.” Marisa’s voice was flat and matter-of-fact. “You sure no one left?”

Bendal shook his head. “As sure as I could be. They might have gotten out through the back, would have been hard to notice, but ... I didn’t see anything moving once they went inside.”

They had picked their way carefully through the side yard and moved slowly to the door, bolting inside with their guns ready to fire. Bright lights had greeted them, but a thorough search had turned up no one in the house, and no sign of where Anna and the men with her had gone.

“Goddamnit...” Holly grumbled.

“They wanted to be seen. They had to have. Why else would Anna let us follow her so long and then lead us to this place? She knew we’d come here after her.” Silver had joined them just moments before and sat on the edge of a chair, his eyes locked on his tablet as his fingers whirled across the virtual keyboard.

Gene filled his canteen from the faucet and sipped it slowly. He glanced around the large living area sleepily. It was the middle of the night and his body was beginning to tire after the exhausting pursuit of Holly’s sister, his nerves still on edge from the unknown plans the woman had for them. The furniture was old and rustic, well-crafted chairs and couches making the place look like any typical ranch house in Europe.

There were pictures of trains on the wall, photos of a man, woman, and two small children on a curio. “Any idea who those people are?” Gene asked idly.

“No clue,” replied Holly, no sign on her face of the weariness the others showed so clearly. “Never saw them before.”

“What does it mean that the trace back went to a system you built for Holly’s father?” Gene asked Silver.

“Hard to say. Very, very few knew of it. Me, Bridgewater, Jesus, maybe a couple of others. Anna. We knew there were moles in M1, and some messages we managed to keep off their comms by using it. I wish I could trace the first message. I’d bet my nuts it hit that same system.”

“No records that you can call up?”

“By design, no. No traces. I got lucky here to find where it went, but what it got out of the connection, I can’t tell.”

Gene stood and paced a moment, trying to work off his fatigue by staying in motion. “So they went out the back. No way anyone could have kept an eye on all sides. They crept out the back and disappeared. Maybe we should scout around and see if there is any sign of them through that field.”

Holly shook her head. “Marisa already tried. Nothing out that way to see.”

Gene shrugged. “Where else could they have gone?”

Holly stood straight a moment, then rushed down a hallway. Gene followed. She snatched at a cord which attached to a pull-down door into the attic. “We looked up there, Holly. Nothing up there.”

She didn’t reply and climbed the small ladder, disappearing through the opening in the ceiling. Gene stepped up and crawled in behind her. Holly was on her hands and knees ahead of him, the attic low and dusty. She called back. “It was disturbed. Someone was in here before we got here. I noticed it earlier, but dismissed it. But I wonder...”

Gene sat on his feet as he watched the nineteen-year old blonde feel around the planks carefully, the light in the attic provided by one spare bulb hanging near the middle. Holly tried edges of several only to find they were fastened hard and unmoving. After long minutes like that, she sat beside Gene and let out a long breath. “It was worth a shot,” she said, frustrated.

“Thought there might be a hidden room or something only accessible from here?”

“It was worth a shot.” She repeated, less forcefully this time.

Gene’s eyes adjusted to the dim attic and he thought he saw a sliver of golden light near the back, near the far wall. “Holly...” he started, but she had seen it too.

The blonde crawled quickly to the spot and ran her fingers along the edge. “It moves!” she exclaimed, heaving the wooden plank up and shifting it aside. Gene watched Holly as she stared down into whatever was below. “Grab our shit and get the others. I’ve found where they’ve gone.”

Tamara watched the countryside whirl past as the driver had them flying down narrow roads inside Austria. The traffic had slowed them, and Major Danielson had been insistent that they make time whenever they could. It reminded Tamara of weeks before, when she had still been with her family, racing through a different part of Europe in the hands of the M1 military.

She’d slept little in the night despite her exhaustion. Thoughts of Gene and her children kept her stomach upset, and twice she had risen to relieve herself. Danielson had not stirred, and the guards had simply acknowledged her and pointed her to the shallow ditch.

They neared Salzburg and Tamara started to grow anxious. She never seemed to stay anywhere long, and every place she’d gone had involved fear and doubt, and more than a few times, an intimate relationship, as well.

Her family hadn’t been the only thoughts keeping her awake. Ingrid’s eyes pierced hers in light dreams, and Tamara awoke a few times to find her pussy drooling to the images. She’d resisted getting off, but as they got closer to Salzburg, she wished she’d have gotten her arousal restrained before getting to their destination.

The SUV pulled down a narrow, hedgerow-lined dirt path and stopped at a gate. Three guards eyed them carefully before approaching. The driver rolled down the window and spoke to them in German before being ushered through. Tamara saw two rows of narrow buildings, and two bulky structures which looked like bunkers. There were trees filling the ground on the property, even between buildings, and they provided a great deal of shade to the area.

They parked next to one of the bunker-looking buildings and were escorted inside. Tamara waited in a small, grey room while Danielson and the others disappeared deeper inside.

She hated waiting. There never seemed to be any middle ground in her life anymore. If she wasn’t waiting, she was running somewhere, and she hated that, too. Or she thought she did. As Tamara turned over that thought in her mind, she couldn’t help a small smile. She’d been a professor of history, and realistic military fiction had been something she had become an expert on over the years. Here she was, living a tale fit for the genre. She chuckled at the thought, and did her best to sit quietly while other people made decisions about what came next.

“We were pretty lucky, Finch,” Lauren said quietly, her brother sitting on the edge of the bed. “We nearly got found out yesterday. I’m kinda creeped.” She regretted her feelings because she really had wanted to let Finch continue to finger her. The thought of Henderson finding out made her lose interest, her clit dwindling in response.

Her brother let out a breath, said, “I know ... just ... can’t help myself, you know.”

“Not complaining. I just don’t want to get caught.” She pursed her lips. “He scares me.”

“Why? Mr. Henderson is such a nice guy.”

“I dunno. Probably that night we met him. He made me piss myself...” It was not a pleasant memory at first, but she started to chuckle as she remembered the event. She’d been scared, but over time, thinking about it, brought arousal for some reason.

“Oh ... yeah, that ... I guess I can see it.”

“Anyway...” Lauren reached to the other side of the bed, “where’s Logan?”

“Dunno. I heard him get up earlier, but I think I fell asleep before he came back. If he came back.”

“He was acting kinda weird yesterday, right?”

Finch nodded. “Yeah. Kinda flighty.”

“Something happened on that walk ... ohmygod, Finch. Do you think... ?”

“Juliana and Georges? Damn ... I hope so...”

“That would explain why Georges stayed to himself all evening. Damn...” Lauren felt herself growing wet and did her best to push the thoughts away. “Can’t think about that now ... getting myself going...”

Before Finch could suggest they stay in bed a while longer, a suggestion she wasn’t too sure she would turn down, Lauren slid from under the covers and jumped into her pants. She’d had to wear a new pair after the light mess she’d made in them while watching her brother fuck Hannah’s menstruating pussy. They slid on fresh and clean over her panties and in moments, she was in the kitchen and watching as Henderson asked after Finch.

“He’s up, should be out in a minute.”

Her brother joined them and Henderson held their attention. “We’re leaving this afternoon. All good, everyone, just had to be patient. Should be there by nightfall.”

“Where are we going?” Logan asked between bites of a bagel.

“Genoa. In Italy.”

The attic had led them to a small hallway which ran down into steep stairs. It had run at least a dozen meters below the house and turned back on itself before running straight for another hundred meters. What they found at the end was not what Gene could have expected.

There was a small console with a few buttons and levers, a small monitor blinking as if it had been powered off and back on without rebooting. Next to the console, the passage opened onto a platform. Tracks led along the platform, disappearing in both direction into darkness.

“Of course! A Heathrow system. I should have thought of that!” Silver exclaimed.

“Heathrow system?” Gene asked as he peered into the darkened tunnel.

“Early on,” Silver explained, “M1 needed to move around places without being seen. There were old lines run all over the place to allow royals and other important people to get from the airports to places they didn’t want to be found. There’s a huge hub of such things at Heathrow.”

Gene stepped back from the platform, said, “handy, I’m sure. Where does it go?”

Silver shook his head. “No idea. This one’s not on the maps I’ve seen. Something built for privacy, I’m sure. Something your dad would have done, Holly.”

The blonde didn’t comment as she watched Marisa flick the console switches and hit a button. “I’ve called for a car,” the mousy woman said, “we’ll see if one answers.”

“Just like that?”

Marisa shrugged, “works the same everywhere. If a car is available and isn’t blocked by other cars, it should come around at some point.”

“How long?” Gene asked.

“Depends. If there’s only one car and it is a long distance away, could be hours or days. No way to tell.”

They didn’t wait long. Ten minutes later, a metallic whizz echoed through the tunnel, and Gene tensed in anticipation. The car slowed and stopped at the platform. It wasn’t much to look at, could have been a much smaller version of a caboose from any train anywhere. It was boxy, small, weak lights on the front and along the top edges.

They climbed inside and Marisa seated herself at the console. “Which way?”

Before anyone could answer, the car’s doors closed and it started moving away from the platform in the direction Gene thought might be west. Or east. He wasn’t terribly certain underground.

Gene settled back into an under-stuffed seat, the car not built for comfort. There was nothing to see in the dark tunnel as the car picked up speed, just the lightest of reflections off the metal beams supporting the tunnel as they whirled by.

The car rocked hard and then Gene heard a concussive explosion from behind them. He turned automatically, saw nothing in the darkness. He eyed Holly, saw her watching the same featureless tracks.

Thirty seconds later, another concussion, closer this time, then a bit later, another.

“They’re blowing the tracks,” Holly muttered, sounding unsurprised by the idea. “Don’t want anyone else following, I expect.”

Gene wondered exactly how they were blowing the tracks, and worried that one mistimed explosion could easily trap them under the earth. His claustrophobia began to fester as the car moved on its own, rocking from time to time as another section of the tunnel collapsed somewhere behind them.

“Mrs. Polanski.” A man’s voice roused her from the nap which had come on out of nowhere. Tamara sat up straighter. “Please follow me.”

She stood mechanically, dreams of light green eyes and a rugged jawline still fresh in her mind. What is going on with me? It’s like I have a crush or something ... What’s that about?

She was taken to a large conference room down a hallway. Inside, Danielson was seated quietly, watching Tamara enter the room. Two men and a woman were also in chairs around a circular table. None of them looked familiar.

“Please, sit,” the other woman suggested, waving her hand towards a chair across from Major Danielson. Tamara did as instructed.

“Right now, we’re in a holding pattern, Mrs. Polanski.” Tamara wondered if the less formal relationship they had had on the road was left behind when they entered the gates of the compound. “This site is secure and we have reason to believe the best place for you to be is here. Expect to be here at least three days. There are other events playing out which may take some time to analyze and which may force us to move south. For now though, you are completely free of movement within the complex.”

“Meaning I can’t leave.”

Danielson replied evenly, “none of us can, not without orders.” She leaned forward, her green eyes slicing through Tamara’s resolve. “Please, we’re trying to help you, Mrs. Polanski. That is our only goal.”

Tamara relaxed slightly and said, “fine. I know. I wouldn’t know where to go even if I could.” She leaned forward and looked at Danielson. “Has there been any more news of my husband? My kids?”

“No, not since we last spoke of the matter. I’ll let you know when we hear anything substantial.”

Tamara nodded, expecting that response. “What am I to do here?”

Danielson paused a moment, replied, “rest. Recharge. I think you need it.”

Logan grinned broadly as the three boys and two girls sat huddled in the bedroom while the adults worried over details of their drive to Italy. He had just listened as Georges told them what had happened the day before. Hannah already knew and Logan watched her mouth widen in a toothsome smile as her twin brother described how good it had felt to be inside his mother’s body. “Cumming in her, wow ... I couldn’t believe I was doing it...”

Logan’s penis was hard in his pants and without thinking, he pulled it out and started to stroke it.

“Logan! I told you, we can’t chance it.”

He scowled, wanted badly to cum to the memories of his own role in the events the day before. Lauren grabbed his hand and laughed, “please, brother. Just let it go this time, ok? We’re leaving in a few minutes, and Hannah and I don’t want to be cleaning it out of our hair or off our clothes.” She laughed again and tucked his hard cock back into his pants.