Because there was no way this was so easy.

Sure enough, there was a heavy, metallic sound from behind them, and as Eve turned the flash that way, Claire saw that a solid grating had come down over the doorway to the narrow little tunnel out – a heavy barrier, coated with a nice, shiny layer of silver. Jesse and Oliver wouldn’t be moving that one, not easily, anyway. And Jesse was already at a disadvantage, since her burnt hand couldn’t have healed so quickly.

‘Stay with her,’ Claire said to Eve, and took the flashlight to look around the rest of the room. It was pretty bare: concrete walls, the explosion of piping where they’d found Liz, and some concrete cubicles off to one side. Nothing they could use. ‘Maybe the other guys can get to us and help us out of here.’

‘Assuming that the bad guys aren’t already on them,’ Jesse said. ‘And since I doubt all of this was run remotely, I can almost guarantee you they’ve got troubles of their own. We need to get out on our own.’

‘Bugger this,’ Oliver growled, and stripped off his shirt. He wrapped it tightly around his hands and moved to the silver grate, took hold, and tried to force it upward. As he did, though, a jet of liquid silver activated, and sprayed over him.

His bare chest took the brunt of the attack, and he spun away with a cry; in the glare of Claire’s flash, his chest looked bone white, then spotted with red flares and blisters as the silver ate into him. It wasn’t fatal, but it had to be really painful. He scrubbed the shirt over his skin to get the liquid off before more damage was done, but it seemed pretty obvious that the booby trap wasn’t done yet; another try would only douse him further, unless they could find a way to block the jet set somewhere above. Claire angled the light up and found the canister and jet, and traced the activation circuit.

She pulled the wire out from the dull mud that had been smeared over it to conceal it, and quickly cut it in two with her knife. ‘Safe,’ she said.

‘Again, then,’ Oliver said. His chest looked scarred, and from the red glimmer in his eyes it still hurt incredibly badly, but he stepped up, wrapped his hands, and took hold again of the silver-coated grate.

It groaned, and strained, and shook, but it didn’t move. He was forced to back off and let his stinging hands recover.

Claire stared at the grate, then used her flashlight to get up close. It had come down on tracks. Was there some kind of release? There had to be, probably on the other side where it couldn’t be seen. Somebody had come in here to work; they wouldn’t want to risk being sealed in with no way out.