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The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can come back and rain
hell down on this goddamn village. ”
    “ Amen to that, ” said Hamish, flooring the accelerator.  He pulled
right, putting the village behind them. 
    The last thing Sarah saw was the
horizon disappearing from the windscreen as the nose of the Snatch rose up into
the air, riding on a blanket of roaring flames, before crashing back down on
its roof.

THE
CUCKOO ’ S NEST
    S arah bucked forwards and
gasped.  For a second she thought she ’ d been struck by that
IED all over again.  When she saw Howard staring back at her from the cockpit,
she registered where she really was.
    “ You okay, Sarah? ” Howard asked.
    “ Fine.  Just a dream. ”
    “ It was good timing you woke up now.  We ’ ve
arrived. ”
    Sarah went to look out the
window, but remembered they were blacked-out.  “ Where
are we, exactly? ” she asked.
    Howard smirked.  “ Not until you sign the paperwork. ”
    Sarah rolled her eyes, then
rubbed at them.  Her cheap, yet ever-reliable Casio watch, informed her she ’ d been asleep for only thirty minutes.
    The helicopter tilted forward
and rotated, losing altitude.  Despite his lumbering appearance, Mandy kept
impressive control over the aircraft and brought them down smoothly.  When they
finally touched down, Sarah barely felt it.
    Howard hopped out of the front
passenger seat and slid the side passenger door open.  Sunlight flooded in and
Sarah shielded her eyes as she got out.
    “ Good day for it, ” Howard said.
    “ That remains to be seen. ”  Green fields and
trees stretched for miles, in every direction. “ We ’ re in the middle of nowhere, ” she
noted.
    “ Not as far from civilisation as you might think, but we do have our
privacy, that ’ s for sure. ”
    Sarah turned another circle,
hoping to catch something she might have missed the first time around, but
there was nothing.  “ Why have you brought me to an empty field? ” she
asked.
    Mandy stepped out from behind the helicopter
and stood beside Howard like a marble statue.  Howard pulled a small tablet
from inside his jacket and held it to his ear.  “We’re here,”he said, and ended
the call.
    There was a sudden vibration followed by a
clunk.
    Howard moved to a patch of weeds, kicking them
flat.  After a few moments he reached down and grabbed at something.  He yanked
open a wooden hatch, scraps of soil and clumps of mud sliding off of it. 
    A gaping hole now lay in front of them.  
    “ Welcome
to the Earthworm, ” Howard said.
    Sarah raised an eyebrow.  “ Earthworm?  What the
hell is that?”
    “ It ’ s just what we call it.  Its real name is MCU Facility One. ”
    “ How many other facilities are there? ”
    “ None. ”
    Sarah cleared her throat.  “ So why give it a number? ”
    “ Originally, there were going to be more, ” Howard explained.
    “ What happened? ”
    “ The banks collapsed.  There were two more sites halfway-built but
the economic crises meant that the funding for the projects fell through.  MCU Facility
One is the only site that got built to completion. ”
    “ So, this hole in the ground is … what?  A secret base? ”
    Howard smiled.  “ Why don ’ t we find out? ”
    Sarah shrugged.  “ Sod it, I came this far. ”
    Howard led her over to the
opening in the ground, while Mandy stayed behind with the helicopter.  There
was a long staircase before them, heading deep into the ground. 
    “ After you, ” Howard said. 
    Sarah was happy to take the
lead for a while.  She was tired of following like a confused child.
    Howard pulled the hatch back
into place above them and the sunlight disappeared.  LED strip lighting
illuminated the staircase, but there was no heating and it got colder as they
went descended.  Sarah began to feel claustrophobic.  It felt like the walls were
closing in and a hundred tons of soil was going to bury her.
    “ You okay? ” Howard asked.
    Sarah tried to take