Emperor Kelper:

He sat on a comfy chair, facing a nicely constructed desk, at the landing exactly 500 metres above the internal room, which was also the first landing open to the sky. He had just finished interrogating the slaves that had been watching the ground and the track to Manifestoria throughout the night and the morning.

So, there has been a lot of traffic between Manifestoria and the entrance to the staircase. It is easily visible by the tracks left over. But nothing much is apparent during the day, so it must have been at night. And there have been continued muffled noises at all hours coming up the staircase.

He shuffled some papers that were on his desk -

Ahh, here it is - Possible Strategies - the option where they build an internal fortress.

In that case, I think the first action is a quick raid by eight fighters. Rush in, note what is there, then rush out and report back to me. Meanwhile, the tunnellers will do their best to invade from the ceiling. My slaves have already dug a common tunnel that reaches within ten metres above the internal room. So, for a start, let's continue from that point with two tunnels and dig them to the ceiling. An extra fighter will accompany each tunneller. So, four in all. Hopefully, that will provide strife from the direction they least expect.

I don't have many people, do I? And I have to keep myself and the Green out of combat. But Eleanor is probably with that Lena vermin and her two ferals, so that's at least four non-combatants on her side. Stupid, why has she got all of that dead weight? It doesn't matter; it gives me an advantage.

He noted that it was almost time. He gave the orders, and a group of four disappeared down the already dug-out tunnel in the Wall. Everyone else waited silently.

At precisely midday:

My party can now advance to the third landing above the room. The tunnelers will take half an hour to do the final ten metres; then, I can send off the initial raiding party.

"OK, Let's go!"

Aragon:

Half an hour beforehand:

Aragon was the last in the line. The others had the decency to retreat to the landing. He bent his head slightly to line his face up to the eyehole in the jury-rigged concrete and rock wall.

"Hi, Esther. Ah, I suppose these will be the last words I say to you until it is all over."

"Yeah, it will be," said Esther, her voice muffled because it was coming from inside.

Aragon tried to say something more, only to feel the weird sensation of not knowing how to create a sentence. Or even produce a single word.

Despite all of our practice, it still feels so strange.

He joined the rest of the gang standing on the landing. One of the Misfits said something, but, of course, all Aragon could hear was a garbled mess of sounds.

Sigh. It's time to get to our positions.

Jane:

She put herself into her pre-battle mood, a mixture of detachment with a slight dash of sourness and resignation.

Maybe I die today, but then, I could have been killed in any of my previous fights.

Don't worry about it.

I hope my grandchild will be OK.

It's time to check everyone's position.

Frannie was at the back of the fighting room. The idea was for her to be visible but protected. Hopefully, this would fool the Emperor into thinking that she was Eleanor. Reggie and Hestia were with her, pretending to be her bodyguards. Squashed to the sides were the Bronsen and Cassy. In the tunnel were Drayden and Alice, while Evereena hid inside the accessway and looked through the eyehole. Jane and Aragon, his brother Jacob and Jacob's partner Adrian lined up on the landing facing the upward stairs. They had already removed the curtain around the toilet bucket and chucked it down the stairs. The bucket itself they left.

Jane, being the best sword fighter because of her one-second future warning ability, was in front.

I can't even say some encouraging words. It'll all come out garbled.

She settled for smiling at everyone within sight. They smiled back.

All of these smiles are strained.

Just settle in and wait, shall we?

Eleanor:

She kept checking the time in her Voice of the World status.

"Damn, it is now definitely after midday, but there are no signs of the slaves. Did I get the time wrong? Or even the day wrong?"

"Relax, my queen. You're getting all uptight," said Lena, patting Eleanor's knee.

"Ah, Eleanor, if you recall from the planning sessions, one of the options is that the Emperor tunnels into the internal room from within the Wall," said the Treasurer.

He opened his folder to the correct page.

"Here it is. If he is doing that, he needs time to evacuate the tunnel or tunnels. So, I guess that is the most likely reason for the delay. Alternatively, he has had some unexpected delays on his side."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"OK, OK, I get it."

Eleanor made an effort to relax. Sitting right next to Lena helped with this.

Evereena was in the access way that opened to the funnel. And Esther was at the entrance to the access way in the command centre. She was holding the end of a rope, the other end being attached to Evereena's ankles.

All the adults were tense. And, as for the children?

They were still and quiet, each holding a stuffed toy, the toys that the Misfits originally gave them.

As Lena's Little Helpers, their duty was to monitor a collection of wires hanging down from the ceiling. Each wire had a weight pulling it down, keeping it taut. The other end went up, around a small pulley, then disappeared sideways through small diameter pipes. These pipes spread out through the entire ceiling area of the original internal room. They also crossed over each other, forming a grid of sorts.

The concept was simple. If the Emperor could get the Wall-digging ability, then his slave's tunnels would (hopefully) come out in the ceiling area. But, the entire ceiling area was covered with steel-reinforced concrete rocks. So they would have to keep hacking through this and incidentally hacking through any pipes containing the signal wires.

Doing so would disturb the trip wires and move the weights. Each weight had a number, so as the children saw them wiggle or drop, they would give the numbers to the Treasurer.

Naturally, one of the pieces of paper in the Treasurer's folder had a map of the internal room, the location of the wires, and their numbers.

Eleanor ran all of this through her head once more. She massaged her temples.

Is all of this going to work?

Jane:

The Emperor's certainly taking his time. It's probably the tunnelling option.

She looked sideways at the funnel entrance. Drayden was nonchalantly leaning against the wall. When he saw her looking, he waved and gave a cheeky smile. She read his body language.

He's as nervous as all hell.

So she waved back at him, then looked up the staircase again. Just in time to see some feet appear. They must have crept down silently as far as possible since as soon as they became visible, the slaves charged down the stairs, three abreast, weapons out.

At the front, Jane was the first to make contact with someone. Who was wielding a spear.

Oh, bloody hell, why couldn't he have been a sword fighter?

She got into position to deflect the spear while the three others lined up slightly behind her. The slave viciously thrust the spear at her, which she easily deflected and then moved back. Jacob on one side and Aragon on the other parried swords against swords and retreated a step.

The slave closest to the toilet bucket had to step slightly to the side to avoid it, and he clipped the elbow of the slave next to him, the one holding the spear. This action put the spear carrier off a little, and he staggered for half a second - enough for Jane to run her sword through him. At the same time, the slave that was closest to the bucket, seeing what he had caused, tried to move back. Only to kick the bucket, which started to topple over.

By the Voice, this one-second warning makes it so easy!

Shit! There's shit everywhere!

Nonetheless, there was no hesitation. As Jane and the others had practised, they all retreated to the funnel. Alice and Drayden moved inside the circular room, almost out of sight. This made Frannie visible, with Hestia and Reggie to her sides. Giving her acting role the best she could, Frannie moved her hands out as if directing the others to retreat up the funnel. They did do this, but only because they had practised this manoeuvre.

The slaves piled into the funnel before realising that this area was small and narrowed to a doorway-shaped exit full of swords pointing out. This situation caught the leading slave in an unfortunate position, with fighters pushing him from behind and a sword porcupine poking at him in front.

He died.

Evereena:

She stuck her head close to the eyehole and watched as Drayden and Alice hurried past. The four fighters followed them. She could see, to one side, the slave dying. Plus a whole lot of slaves behind him.

Ha! It's not called a killing funnel for nothing, you know!

Die!

The slave closest to her collapsed without any warning apparent to any of the other slaves. There was a blur of motion as the slaves rapidly reversed their direction. In their rush to get back, one of them ran into another, which delayed the last one going out -

Die!

Another slave collapsed.

"They must be behind that hole in the wall!" said someone outside.

The rock muffled the voice, but their intention was obvious. Evereena flicked her feet up and down. Waiting for this signal, Esther pulled on the rope, and Evereena jerked backwards, out of range.

A spear poked through the hole and missed her by centimetres. Her right arm was forward, so she grabbed the spear behind the head and pulled it forward and sideways. Sadly, it being a bonded weapon, it merely vanished.

Oh well, it was worth a try.

Another spear appeared, just in time to be crushed by a column of concrete dropping in from the ceiling. Actually, from a hole in the ceiling. Esther had pulled the plug, and the concrete block waiting patiently for its chance to join the fray dropped down, blocking off the accessway.

Evereena popped out of the accessway, landing in Esther's arms. The command centre was now crowded. It was also hectic for the next few seconds as Eleanor and Lena frantically grabbed the concrete blocks that formed the top line of their bench and handed them over. Evereena and Esther, using their enhanced strengths, shoved them into the accessway, thus blocking off the whole length. Finally, some steel bars were dropped through prepared brackets, preventing the blocks from being pushed back out again.

"Evereena, quick, into the other access tunnel, and Esther, take up position again!" said Eleanor.

Jane:

She had watched as the slaves retreated to the entrance of the funnel. But, when two slaves had collapsed without warning, the one that must have been the squad leader called a halt and a retreat.

Damn, he must have some intelligence. They all have blue collars.

He ordered a slave to sidle up to the eyehole and poke in a spear several times. Then, another slave tried to bash a hole in the wall with an axe.

Oh no, you don't!

Jane and Aragon stepped smartly forward with swords ready to thrust. The squad leader called out a command, and the slaves rapidly retreated.

There was silence.

Four bodies. And what is that smell? Oh, that's right, the toilet bucket got tipped over, so there's shit everywhere.

How appropriate.

She pointed to Aragon, Adrian and Jacob, then cautiously went forward. She looked up the staircase. Nothing visible. She made another arm movement, and they placed the bodies on the first landing up, stacked up to barricade it.

It should delay them a second or two.

Now, how did the ones inside the command centre go?

Drayden came out. He made a circle with his right-hand thumb and first finger, then an OK sign.

Right, so they survived with no problems.

Standing in sewage, surrounded by its sweet aroma, they took up their formation again.

Kelper:

He received the reports from the four returning slaves.

Four dead already. That was fast. But, I now know how they have arranged themselves. And Eleanor is accessible at the end of that funnel. With bodyguards, of course.

So, that girl who can kill people at a distance must be hiding behind the fortress walls.

I don't quite understand why Eleanor isn't inside the fortress... Nyah, they must have thought it wouldn't allow her to direct the battle.

Oh, damn, the tunnelling slaves have just sent up a message to say they are breaking through right now. They're a bit late. It can't be helped.

The tunnellers sent the message by jerking a long rope, going through the tunnel from the initial starting location half a kilometre up the staircase to the face of the tunnel.

Eleanor's group wasn't the only one using strings as communication lines.

Then, the message was relayed back down the staircase by shouting. The Green behind the Emperor had fully maxed out hearing, allowing him to pick up the message.

OK, send in eight slaves again, all of my remaining slaves. Keep the fighters at the front engaged. Hopefully, my tunnelers will be able to do something.