The Fog - James Herbert [128]
They turned as they heard the lumbering figure of the Captain returning. ‘I’ve put the container halfway up the incline,’ he said, ‘where the road branches off to the ramp we’ve just come down. It’ll be quite safe there for now; it’s virtually indestructible and nobody can move it unless they know how to operate it.’
He poked his head inside the cabin of the vehicle and emerged again holding a small two-way radio. ‘We’ll keep in touch constantly,’ he said. ‘You take this, Mr Holman. It’s simple to operate, and you can speak to us while Sergeant Stanton is setting up his explosives.’ He handed the radio to Holman who examined it briefly, then nodded.
‘It should take us about twenty minutes to get through the tunnel and set ourselves up, providing we don’t run into trouble on the way,’ the Captain went on, glancing at his watch. ‘But we’ll radio through and synchronize our blasts that way. All set?’ he turned towards Ryker.
The figure nodded and clambered into the vehicle. Before he was completely through, he turned and said, ‘Good luck to all of us. And may God help us.’
Holman stood well back while the Sergeant went about setting his explosives thirty feet inside the tunnel, even though he was assured it was quite harmless until it had been ‘primed’. ‘In fact,’ Sergeant Stanton had explained, ‘it’s the blasting caps that are more dangerous. Highly explosive, they are.’ He had shown him the small metal tube that was the primer. ‘There’s a little bit of lead azide in there, with a larger amount of trinitrotoluene – TNT to you. Very sensitive.’ He had grinned through his mask at Holman, enjoying the man’s discomfort. ‘Don’t worry, sir, you’ll be all right with me.’ He had gone into the tunnel whistling tunelessly, happy now that he was at last doing something positive, something he was an expert at.
Holman dragged clear of the entrance the dead body of the man he’d thrown from the car, for some illogical reason not wanting it to be buried beneath tons of concrete. After a short while, the Sergeant came out of the tunnel, unwinding a long thin cable from a spindle behind him. ‘That should do it,’ he said, almost cheerfully now.
The radio crackled in Holman’s hand. ‘Hello, can you hear me, Mr Holman?’ It was Ryker’s voice sounding distant and even less human than it had through the mask’s speaker. Holman acknowledged. ‘The Captain is inside the tunnel now,’ the voice went on. ‘The southbound passage was clear. Filled with fog of course, but not the nucleus. We had to take it steady – our vision was not too good – but we used dipped headlights and stayed close to the wall. As yet, we’ve seen no people over this side and I must admit, we have no desire to. The exit – or should I say entrance – at this end is perfect for our purposes. It is enclosed by heavy concrete slabs all the way along the incline leading from the tunnel. We have parked our vehicle on the opposite road of the other tunnel which is much higher than its sister road. That is where I am perched at this moment, looking straight down into the exit; we will move back to a safer position as soon as we are ready. How are things at your end?’
‘Sergeant Stanton is just running out the fuse. We should be ready at any time.’
‘Good. Captain Peters asked me to tell the Sergeant he will place one charge as near to the roof as possible, another at the bottom of the opposite wall. Could you pass that on to Sergeant Stanton please.’
Holman shouted the message after Stanton who was now some distance away up the incline. He looked up at Holman, nodded, pointed to his chest and gave the thumbs-up sign.
‘The Sergeant’s done the same,’ Holman said into the mouthpiece.
‘Good, good. Now I suggest we find cover. The Captain is coming out of the tunnel now so we should soon be ready to proceed. I will speak to you again in a few moments.’
The radio went dead and Holman walked back towards