XXXIFinn and Diane removed their boots and hurled them as far away as they could through the iron grille. Then, their bare feet giving them more grip on the steel slide, they worked their way twenty feet or so back up the chute.
The second explosion, when it came, was huge, deafening in the narrow space, the sound like something solid clanging off the walls. More acrid smoke billowed over them. They slid through it holding their breath. This time the grille was hanging loose, one hinge completely detached. Kicking at it, Finn knocked it loose to slide, as he had once before, out of the tunnel and onto the ground of the mines. Diane landed beside him.
Their rescuer stood over them, the same short, powerful figure Finn recalled. Except something was different, something in the way this fig
