"You've gone and done what?"
"It's for a good cause." I defended myself.
"It doesn't matter if the world depended on it." Narri, my best friend, argued. "You're insane."
"Maybe. But how cool would it be if we make it all the way!"
"If? Why is that only an if? If you're not sure you'll make it all the way, why are you going at all?"
"We have nearly a dozen companies willing to sponsor us per mile. A couple have even offered a bonus if we make it all the way."
"That sounds like a pretty safe offer on their part." Narri shrugged. "And I know that's a lot of money, but what happens when you get as far as you can go and you can't get any further?"
"There'll be surveillance the whole way. If we decide we're done, they'll pull us out. Same if we get into trouble."
Narri stared thoughtfully at me for a moment, then stood and wandered into the hall.
"Phil!" She yelled upstairs to our other housemate. "I need a bit of help."
"He's not going to talk me out of it." I informed Narri as she sat back down again. The thunder of feet on the stairs preceded Philip into the room, and after a quick look at the pair of us, he flung himself onto the sofa next to Narri.
"What's up?" He asked.
"Ash is walking across the Atlantic for charity."
"What?"
It was amusing the way Phil's eyes seemed to pop from his head, but I bit back the laughter.
"It's for a good cause." I repeated, shrugging.
"I didn't think it was passable anymore."
"It might not be." Narri muttered.
"No, it might not be." I agreed. "But the first few miles are clear, they've already checked the tunnel. C'mon, Phil, how cool would it be to see the sub-Atlantic complex from the inside. I'll be one of the first people for nearly a hundred years to walk down there."
"Is there air?"
"In the first section. There'll be submarines going ahead of us, making sure the tunnels are safe and turning on the air filters. If the filters aren't working anymore, then we'll have oxygen tanks."
"And if it's filled up with water?"
"Then we're stuck. The pressure will be too great to try and swim through it. We'll just be picked up at the nearest working airlock and brought back to shore. It'd be an arse if that happened, but I'm not getting into a fight with the ocean about it."
Phil sat back, clearly torn between amazement and common sense. Narri, seeing that she was losing Phil's support, filled the silence.
"How long is it going to take you? Assuming you can walk the whole way."
"Just under four months."
"Four months?" Phil asked, amazement subsiding in favour of common sense. "You're job..."
"Contract ends at the end of the year, and the state the company is in, I doubt they're going to renew it. The expedition starts in March, so that gives me two months of interruption-free training. I wouldn't have signed up for it if I didn't already know I'd be free."
"I don't know." Narri frowned. "You sign up for a lot of crazy stuff. Like that zero gravity race outside the space station last year, or the high atmosphere jump from the shuttle that was supposed to bring you back from it."
"It did bring me back." I reminded her. "Into the atmosphere, at least. I saw to the last bit myself."
"Because you're crazy."
"At least I'll be staying planet-side this time."
"But four months..." Phil shook his head.
"How far is it, from end to end?"
"I can't remember exactly how long they said it was, but we're starting from the St. Just terminus in Penznace, and from there to the exit in Myrtle Grove is approximately three thousand seven hundred miles. It'll be longer than that, of course, what with the slopes and turns."
"That's a lot of walking."
"We've got a long time to do it in."
"So how much are you being sponsored?" Phil asked.
"We've got eleven big, multinational companies sponsoring us five pounds per mile. Two of them are adding half again onto our total if we make it all the way. There's dozens of smaller companies giving us less, but it's still going to add up. Five pounds per mile, at three thousand seven hundred miles is..." I paused as I quickly did the calculation. "Eighteen and a half thousand pounds. And that'd just be from one company. Even if we only get a third of the way, that's a huge amount of money!"
"It still sounds really dangerous." Narri grumbled.
"It's as safe as they can make it." I shrugged. "And it wouldn't be any fun if there wasn't a little bit of danger."
"Fun." Phil rolled his eyes. "You have a strange idea of fun. Still, it does sound exciting. How many of you are there?"
"Seven, but only one other girl."
"I guess other women are just more sensible." Narri teased. "Well, I admit when I'm beaten. I can see you've got the bit between your teeth."
"And the tunnel vision is setting in." I added, nodding. "I know. But I can't just sit around not doing anything."
"We shouldn't complain." Phil told Narri calmly. "Think of all the reflected glory we'll get once she gets started." He mimed picking up a phone. " 'Sorry, but Ash isn't home right now, she's a mile underwater in the middle of the Atlantic. I'll get her to call you when she gets back in four months. Why yes, that is pretty amazing.' " He put the mime-phone down and grinned.
"Will we be able to get in touch with you?" Narri asked, forcing herself not to laugh at Phil.
"Maybe. We still need to work out a lot of the details, but the subs will be able to reach us at points through the complex, so potentially."
"Do we get to meet the guys you're going with?"
"No, their identities are top secret." I said completely seriously. Pausing, I studied Narri's face to see if she believed me. A raised eyebrow told me I'd been rumbled. "Of course you can meet them. We're going out for a meal in a week or so. If you two want to come along, you're more than welcome."
"Yeah." Phil nodded. "It'll be interesting to go out with a group of people all as crazy as you."
"Interesting?" Narri commented, smiling. "Educational. All right, count me in. How bad could it be?"
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