I realized that Casey was growing weaker. He was on his knees now, still struggling to be free, and I let myself fall to one side, pulling him after me. I looked over at Rozalia, and saw she had managed once more to get a hold of her rifle and was struggling to aim it.

Casey took advantage of my distraction, reaching back to dig his fingers into my eyes. I screamed and twisted away, and he took the advantage, surging back to his feet just as a loud explosion filled the confined space. Casey staggered and fell within the transfer stage’s perimeter, blood pouring down his leg.

The air around him shimmered like a summer heat haze and I knew I was out of time. Even badly wounded, Casey would still be able to open the cage once he crossed over to the Authority.

In an instant, I knew what I had to do.

I scrambled over to the laptop controlling the stage. The screen showed a countdown with just seconds to go, and a set of transfer coordinates flashing red. I had been taught, during my last week of training, how to program a transfer stage control rig to get me back to the island in an emergency. I quickly tapped an icon, then reset the coordinates to a null sequence.

I turned in time to see Casey crawling towards the transfer stage’s perimeter, stark terror etched on his face. He knew what I had done. Then he vanished, sent spinning into some unimaginable void along with Greenbrooke and the cage of bees. The space encircled by the field-pillars was as silent and empty as if nothing and no one had ever been there.

‘Jerry.’

I went over to kneel by Rozalia. I could see she was struggling to breathe.

‘Just hang on there,’ I said, feeling helpless. ‘I can recalibrate the stage, jump us all the way back to the island. There are doctors there . . .’

‘Stop trying to be a fucking hero,’ she gasped. ‘Go get Yuichi. He’s right where you left him.’

‘Of course.’ I glanced back towards the stage. How long would it take me to power it up again? How many minutes? Too many, I realized.

‘I wanted Casey to pay for what he did to Nadia. And to you. Do you understand?’ Her hand reached out, taking hold of my own. ‘You’re a good man, Jerry Beche.’

‘Yeah, and we can talk about that when you’re feeling better. How the hell did you even get past those tripwires?’

She smiled faintly. ‘By paying attention,’ she whispered.

Her eyes closed and I felt her grow slack in my arms.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Come on. Wake up. Rozalia. Wake the fuck up. I . . .’

And then I looked down, at the blood still spreading across the floor, and knew it was already much too late.