BooksBarbecue
Back Extinction Game Save as PDF
Chapters (33)
  1. Title page
  2. CONTENTS
  3. ONE
  4. TWO
  5. THREE
  6. FOUR
  7. FIVE
  8. SIX
  9. SEVEN
  10. EIGHT
  11. NINE
  12. TEN
  13. ELEVEN
  14. TWELVE
  15. THIRTEEN
  16. FOURTEEN
  17. FIFTEEN
  18. SIXTEEN
  19. SEVENTEEN
  20. EIGHTEEN
  21. NINETEEN
  22. TWENTY
  23. TWENTY-ONE
  24. TWENTY-TWO
  25. TWENTY-THREE
  26. TWENTY-FOUR
  27. TWENTY-FIVE
  28. TWENTY-SIX
  29. TWENTY-SEVEN
  30. TWENTY-EIGHT
  31. Acknowledgements
  32. By Gary Gibson
  33. Copyright page

I got close enough that I could hear the pair of them talking and moving around inside. At one point I heard a window rattle. I tried to take a peek inside, but it looked as if Wallace had covered all the windows up with the same black card that he puts on his own windows. I stayed hidden there around the back of the house until close to dawn, until Wallace finally emerged – but there was no sign of Casey.

As soon as Wallace was out of sight I made my way inside the house. I didn’t feel worried about running into Casey because by now I had a pretty good idea what I was going to find. And there it was, down in the basement: a set of field-pillars – in other words, a portable transfer stage.

EIGHTEEN

‘Well, shit,’ said Rozalia, clearly stunned. ‘Didn’t see that one coming.’

I looked between the two of them. ‘Why? Is it that hard to get hold of a portable stage?’

Rozalia let out a stifled laugh. ‘Hell, yes. You can’t just walk in and grab a bunch of field-pillars and something to run them with. All the equipment’s kept under lock and key, and guarded to boot.’

‘I want to hear the rest of what he wrote,’ said Chloe. She looked scared and lost in a way that made me want to wrap her up in my arms. I took a swallow of my coffee, which had turned lukewarm, before continuing:

The whole time I was thinking, Who had the power or the resources to give Casey and Wallace a private transfer stage? It had to be someone from inside the Authority itself, and whoever they were, they’d done it without Bramnik’s knowledge or consent.

By now I felt little doubt that the two men would prove to be involved somehow with what had happened in the Howler alternate. With their own transfer stage to take them there any time they wanted, they’d have had numerous opportunities to interfere with on-site equipment in between the scheduled trips.

Well, I was damned if I was going to sit on all this until Bramnik finally decided to get the hell back to the island. I decided to confront one or both of them – and since Casey wasn’t anywhere around, that meant it had to be Wallace.

I didn’t wait a moment longer. I headed straight round to Wallace’s and hammered on his door until he let me in. From the smell of his breath he’d started drinking from the moment he got in the door. When he saw the look on my face I think he guessed why I was there; he tried to slam the door shut, but I forced my way in and threw him into a chair before demanding he give me the answers I wanted.