Excerpt
A stillness hung over this group. They had been on a tempestuous journey, and failure at this late stage couldn’t even be contemplated. But which way to turn? As much as they agreed with Ben’s desire to free Matt, their safety had to be considered too. It seemed that whatever plan they came up with, and there were some excellent ones, it would involve too much personal risk. Ben, staring silently at the three candles in front of him, eventually drew the others’ attention.

“Come on, Ben, we all know how you feel,” said Becky soothingly, assuming, wrongly, that he was feeling disappointed. “Maybe we’ve got to accept the hard fact that there’s nothing we can do.”

“Just watch the candles,” he said, his gaze unbroken.

“Okay. But what is it I’m looking for?”

“The direction the flames are being blown in.”

“They are going towards the entrance – so what? You said it yourself at the flats, the wind was getting up.”

“If the entrance was the only opening in this shelter, you would expect the flames to bend towards the back, wouldn’t you?”

“I guess so, but I still don’t see your point.”

“The increase in wind strength is creating a draft from the back not the front. That means that, in the rooms beyond this one, somewhere is open to the wind; open to the outside. I’m going to find out where.”

“I think he’s lost it!” said Gary, only half joking, as Ben passed him and disappeared. “Clutching at one straw too many, I think. The flame moving that way is probably caused by swirling air, that’s all.”

A minute later, a muffled shout had them all running in the direction of where Ben had gone. The breeze grew stronger the further they went underground – was he right after all? Could this be some kind of secret way? Where would it lead? They saw the light of his torch swinging back and forth, and walked towards it. Ben was so engrossed in what he’d found that the sudden arrival of the others made him jump and his torch crashed to the floor.

“What have you found, Ben?” Jade asked.

“This,” he said, turning his torch back on and pointing to an opening in the wall, the height of a man. The tunnel appeared to be quite steep to start with, but levelled off and turned left after about 20 metres or so. “I said to Holly that the shelter in the grounds of the hotel was similar to ours. I’m now convinced of it. If, as I suspect, ours was used as a gun position to protect the harbour, during a war, why not that one too? Remove the buildings that now surround it, and it has an excellent position overlooking the harbour.”

“And you think this tunnel provides a link between them?” Gary asked wide-eyed with excitement.

“It must be!” said Holly, before Ben could reply. “If one came under attack, the linking tunnels could be used to either reinforce or evacuate each shelter.”

“Well, after all our misfortune, it’s good to get some good luck for a change,” Ben said, cuddling Holly in his joy at this unexpected discovery.

Was this the way into the Sea View they so desperately wanted? The journey to find the answer would soon begin.