CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY EIGHT – GETTING TO THE PLANE

Karina took the lead, ducking through the curtained entrance and shuffling along the cramped dirt passage with Becky tucked securely in the joins of her elbows. The stale reek of mold and damp clung to her nostrils as the narrow confines pressed in from all sides, but she pushed on undaunted, guided by the twin courages of maternal determination and Rendell's craggy silhouette plowing the path ahead of her. After an indeterminable stretch of blind, silent progress, a dim light appeared to beckon them onwards. Karina hastened her pace, relief flooding her as the cramped passage expanded into a wider, bricked alcove illuminated by sputtering fluorescents and echoing with the distant hum of aviation equipment. Rendell grinned around the toothpick trapped between his teeth, giving them an appraising look before jerking his head towards the illuminated exit. "Well go on then, loves -- ain't no crisis been solved by loiterin' about in the sub-basement all day, now have it?" Filling her