BooksBarbecue
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Chapters (45)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Contents
  4. Prologue
  5. 2046
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Thirty-Three
  39. Thirty-Four
  40. Thirty-Five
  41. Thirty-Six
  42. Thirty-Seven
  43. Thirty-Eight
  44. Thirty-Nine
  45. About the Author

Ben eats because the other two eat. His mind whirls. His stomach twists. His nerves frayed. He thinks of Steph and hates that he is not being told something. Safa was holding something back. His life is gone. He is dead but not dead. He is not a soldier. Not a cop. Not a detective. He is not what they need but yet he is here. Why did this program choose him? He had a one hundred per cent success rate in his cases but they were insurance claims, not murder investigations, and they certainly didn’t involve trying to work out who blew the world up in the future. He glances at Harry, wishing he had that level of calmness. He looks at Safa, amazed at the smallness of the world and that she was the copper who ran on to the platform at Holborn. Even without make-up she is stunningly beautiful but she is hard as nails too. Seriously tough. Why can’t he be calm like they are? Why can’t he project that level of . . .

‘The window might be a hologram projection,’ Ben says, his brain engaging gear once again. His heart thrills at the possibility. He stops eating to stare at Safa then at Harry.

‘Hologram?’ Harry asks.

‘Like an illusion,’ Safa says quietly.

‘No,’ Harry says instantly.

‘Technology has advanced from nineteen forty-three, Harry,’ Safa says.

‘We should go outside and look then,’ Harry replies calmly.

‘That valley is a big distance,’ Ben says, thinking on the spot. ‘It could still be faked somehow.’

‘One way to know for sure,’ Safa says and sits up to look round. ‘We’ll need to see it working. We need proof.’

Fourteen

Fourteen

‘We want proof,’ Safa says, bringing them to a stop in the corridor on seeing Roland in the doorway to his office.

‘Yes, I had envisaged you would indeed require . . .’

Ben stands at the back and notices how tiny she is compared to Harry and he’s amazed Harry is letting her take the lead the way she is. Maybe Harry is content to just stand back and watch for a bit, like assess and weigh it all up before making his own mind up. Ben prays the windows are hologram projections and Roland is a mad kidnapping wanker who is about to be beaten up by Safa and Harry. He ignores the fact that he already believes Safa and Harry are who they say they are. That bit isn’t relevant to his desperate hope.