Chapter 61
Swearing under his breath, David Mentmore worked his way painfully along the rat-run. He progressed slowly, using knees and elbows: at just a yard in diameter, the tube was not high enough to crawl with any freedom. Sometimes, to ease his body, he stopped to lift himself up and work his shoulders.
But whenever he did this, the Major, from behind, would say “Keep going. Don’t stop!” and nudge his foot.
But the Major was protected by the A-cube, so his arms and legs were not being worked raw against the pocked and rusting metal. Nor - for the same reason - was the Major concerned about the rats, which fled in front of them in increasing numbers.
Although there were no lights, it was not completely dark: they were surrounded by a bubble of strange, thin perpetual evanescence th
