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Chapters (52)
  1. Title
  2. Copyright
  3. About the Book
  4. About the Author
  5. Also By
  6. Contents
  7. Dedication
  8. Roll Call
  9. A Brief History of the Time Wars
  10. Jane
  11. Luke
  12. Matthew
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. 6
  19. 7
  20. 8
  21. 9
  22. 10
  23. 11
  24. 12
  25. 13
  26. 14
  27. 15
  28. 16
  29. 17
  30. 18
  31. 19
  32. 20
  33. 21
  34. 22
  35. 23
  36. 24
  37. 25
  38. 26
  39. 27
  40. 28
  41. 29
  42. 30
  43. 31
  44. 32
  45. 33
  46. 34
  47. 35
  48. 36
  49. 37
  50. Epilogue
  51. Author’s Note
  52. A Note on Recruitment

I don’t know at what point it occurred to me that this could be just what I was looking for – a job with living accommodation provided. I watched it go by a couple more times – I was worried in case they changed their minds suddenly and took it down, but they didn’t so I caught the airbus to London and enlisted.

Luke

Luke

The bleeping woke me. I had a message coming through. I blinked and tried to focus. Blinked again, tried again, blinked again and gave it up, hoping the whole thing would go away.

It didn’t.

When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I sat up and waited vainly for the pounding behind my eyes to go away, until I was finally able to focus on the read-out.

Hey, what do you know? A message from dear old Dad. Had he remembered my birthday? A bit of a first for him. And it’s not as if he had any excuse – he had armies of people to remind him about things like this. There it was, though. His name flashing on the screen.

I hadn’t heard from him for quite some time, and actually I’d rather been expecting to be on the receiving end of massive parental displeasure over the Tannhauser business, but there had been complete silence and since that had been some time ago now, he’d obviously missed it.

Like an idiot, I was pleased to hear from him. I thought he was messaging me because today was my birthday. Celebrations had begun last night – hence the pounding head this morning – and were due to continue for quite some time. And then I read the message and thought – shit.

It was a bit of a bugger getting the girl out of bed and I couldn’t remember her name. Dianna? Dinah? Yes, Ruth – that was it. Actually, it turned out her name was Deidre so I wasn’t that far out. But calling her Ruth would account for her snippy exit.

Heroically and despite the hangover, I made a real effort to clean up my apartment. Well, technically, I just shoved everything into a black bag and hurled it into the incineration chute. I can’t think why people find housework so difficult. It wasn’t wonderful, but thirty minutes later things did look considerably tidier. He’d never been here before so I wanted to make a good impression. It would be nice if he liked the place.

I’d just selected Scottish Heather for the air conditioner when the doorbell rang. He was here.

No, he wasn’t. He’d sent his PA, Ms Steel, instead.