I shook my head. ‘Nope. Someone told me I’d be briefed on arrival.’ I looked between them. ‘Or has someone screwed up?’

‘Oh, brother.’ Oskar rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, sounds like it.’

‘Better wait till we’re on the other side,’ said Haden, reaching for the front passenger door. ‘Fact is, we’re late to the party. Everyone else is there and waiting for us.’

I nodded at the SUV. ‘So if we’re driving around in this thing, does that mean there’s a chance we’ll run into trouble?’

‘Hopefully it’ll be a cakewalk,’ said Haden. ‘Long as nothing goes wrong, anyway.’ He grinned to show he was kidding.

‘Shit,’ said Oskar. He had stopped with one hand on the driver’s side door, a baleful look on his face. ‘You had to say it, didn’t you?’

‘Say what?’ asked Haden.

‘You said something might go wrong.’

‘I wasn’t even talking to you,’ said Haden, climbing in.

Oskar pressed his bunched fists to either side of his head. ‘Just shut up, will you?’

‘You’ve got your lucky card, right?’ said Haden. He leaned out the window of the SUV and looked back at me. ‘Better than plate armour any day.’

Oskar glared at the other man. ‘Don’t try and wind me up, you silver-eyed freak. I’m not in the mood.’

‘Oskar used to be a professional gambler,’ said Haden over his shoulder, as I got in the back of the SUV. I nearly got a mouthful of fur when Lucky leaped into the back next to me, and I began to wish I’d got in the front instead. Haden reached up as if to scratch his ear and slowly twirled one finger next to his ear. ‘You should ask him some time about his lucky card. Ace of Spades, right?’ he said, looking at Oskar.

‘Shut the fuck up,’ Oskar groused, and I wiped one hand across my mouth to hide my grin. Haden meanwhile leaned back out of the open window beside him, and gave the rig technician a thumbs-up. The technician nodded and put down the book he’d been reading, and within seconds the air began to flicker and shift around us. I closed my eyes and held my breath as gravity slipped away for an instant.

When I next opened my eyes, I found we had materialized in the open air. The SUV was at the centre of a portable transfer stage, which consisted of a dozen foot-high field-pillars arranged in a wide circle on scrubby grass. Beyond I saw woodlands and a motorway bridge arching over a lake, its far end collapsed. Farther away I made out a cluster of skyscrapers, a number of which looked to have been reduced to near-skeletons.