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via a different route,” Lionel explains. “There is more than one reason they call us the Underground, you know.”
     
     
     
     

SIX
     
     
     
     
    “ S o you’re saying they escaped underground somehow?” I say.
    Lionel nods. He’s still looking at the screen that shows the broken and ruined Underground base. He taps a few keys on a nearby computer keyboard, apparently making a note of something.
    “As you probably know, each of our bases has multiple underground levels. We are, for example, currently some four stories underground.”
    “We are?” I ask. I don’t know why, but somehow, it’s easier to imagine a maze of tunnels beneath a hangar like the one back in the desert than it is to imagine them beneath an old house like this. And it’s not like I can tell just by looking how far down we are. There aren’t any windows here, but beyond that, this control center could be on any level.
    “The Underground got the idea from the kind of underground tunnels and bunkers used in this country during the Second World War,” Lionel explains. “There were whole secret sections that did their work underground then, and sections of the London tube system were used as part of it. There were also plenty of bunkers and tunnels built for use in the event of an invasion. This house originally had several like that, which we merely expanded and made a little more appropriate for our needs.”
    “Just how big are these tunnels?” I ask, trying to get some sense of the scale on which the Underground is working.
    Lionel shrugs. “They are extensive enough to hide our whole operation in each location. We really don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. Not only does that create an increased risk of attack by the Others, but even local governments tend to get quite worried when they see heavily armed operations on our scale. It wouldn’t do to give them an excuse to send in troops, now would it?”
    I guess not, though I hadn’t really thought about it like that. “Don’t you work with governments?” I ask.
    “Our relationships with them can be quite... complicated,” Lionel says. “Most of those like myself and Sebastian came out of official programs of one kind or another, yet no government would ever admit to doing the kinds of things we look into. If we were officially linked to any one government, that might cause embarrassment, as well as creating the illusion that we are here to support one country’s interests, rather than simply to do research. On the whole, it is better for us to be merely a private organization with a few friends in high places, don’t you think?”
    I can’t answer that. In fact, all it does is to remind me just how out of my depth I am. I’m a part of this world because of what I am, but I am not trained for it, and I don’t have any experience of trying to keep up with its complex politics. Instead, I try to latch onto something simpler.
    “So these tunnels beneath the various bases include escape tunnels?” I ask.
    “They do,” Lionel says, then turns to Grayson. “Tell me, young man, where does the tunnel from Location Six come out?”
    “In the mountains,” Grayson says, and then gives Lionel a map reference.
    For a moment, the retired major looks thoughtful. “Sebastian certainly put a lot more information into you than I would have thought,” he says. “It’s enough to make me wonder why. Still, you’re correct.”
    He taps another few computer keys, and one of the cameras switches its view until it shows what appears to be nothing more than a mountainside.
    “I don’t see what we’re looking at,” I say.
    “Be patient,” Lionel advises. “Ah, there. Thank goodness.”
    The camera zooms in, and because I know that there must be something there, I try to see what Lionel is seeing. It’s only when the hatch in the rock face starts to swing open though that I even notice it. It opens wide like some kind of modern day take on Aladdin’s cave, and from