BooksBarbecue
Back Extracted
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

‘Please allow me to check first,’ Roland tells Harry. He turns to the light and after a quick thumbs up from Malcolm he bends forward at the waist and shoves his head into the wall of light and disappears from the torso up. He’s there but not there. Like he’s been shorn off across the midsection. Harry quickly leans round the back of the light and shakes his head.

‘No way.’ Ben rushes round, the reverse is the same as the front, but with a distinct lack of Roland’s upper body poking out. His brain struggles to process what his eyes are seeing. Roland is there. Leaning forward but not there on the other side.

‘All clear,’ Roland says after pulling back. ‘Please, come straight through.’ He steps into the light and is gone completely from the room. Roland is not there. He is gone. The three of them gawp with eyes wide open and try peering harder into the light but fail to see anything on the other side.

‘It’s safe,’ Malcolm says, nodding at the bright blue doorway. ‘Honest, it won’t hurt or anything. Me and Kon done it loads of times.’

‘Loads,’ Konrad says, nodding at them.

Harry goes first. Holding his hand out to touch the light gently as though he’s trying to stroke it with his fingertips but his fingers go through.

‘Can you feel it?’ Safa asks.

‘No,’ Harry replies. With a grunt he lunges forward as though to headbutt the light but sails clean through it. A second later he pulls back with the blood draining from his face, standing shocked to the core. ‘Wait here,’ he whispers and steps through.

‘What the fuck,’ Ben mutters, subconsciously stepping closer to Safa. ‘Holy shit,’ he yelps as Harry’s head appears through the light as though he’s leaning forward from the other side.

‘Come through.’ Harry grins wide and toothy then pulls back out of view again.

‘Fuck,’ Ben mouths again and looks at Safa, who stares up at him looking weirdly excited. She smiles, grabs his hand and nods at the light. He swallows and nods back.

‘On three,’ she says. ‘One . . . two . . . three . . .’

The transition is instant and painless. Exactly like stepping from one room to the other with a distinct lack of any form of sensation or physical reaction. They half-expected it to feel cold but that’s only because it’s blue.