Chapters (45)
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Prologue
- 2046
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- About the Author
The realisation hits at the same second as her right hand comes up to her waist and shoves into a side pocket of her waterproof coat.
‘FOR THE EARTH . . .’ A screeching voice as her left hand shoots into the air with a clenched fist, then the whole of her disappears in an explosion of pink mist with a dull bang that detonates in all directions, taking out swathes of people standing nearby. Hot wet spray hits Ben’s face. People scream on the platform and on the tracks. Bodies writhe with injuries and convulse with limbs locked out in spasm from the electric current of the live rail.
Time slows to a state of mind Ben had once before. Everything in front of him is in perfect clarity to the smallest of details and he can see everything as it is about to play out.
The ginger man lifts his arm to shove into the side pocket of his waterproof jacket. Ben looks round but it’s like everything is in slow motion. He spots the dark-haired man pulling a sawn-off shotgun from a bag then the woman with the pink top rising to her feet with a black pistol gripped in each hand. More of the I Love London brigade on the platform. People screaming. People dying. Blood and bodies everywhere. Everyone will die if he does nothing. That is fact. Everyone here will die.
Ben starts running, instinct pushing him to react. The ginger man has a bomb. Stop the bomb. That’s all Ben thinks. He aims for the ginger man, who thrusts his right hand into his jacket. Nothing happens. His hand fumbles as a puzzled look floods across his face. Two huge booms from the entranceway as the dark-haired man fires both barrels of the sawn-off shotgun at the commuters running to escape. The effect is devastating with pellets spreading to lacerate flesh and muscle.
Ben veers and dodges through the terrified people trying to run away or find somewhere to hide, but the only exit is blocked by the man with the shotgun. Gunshots boom loudly in the enclosed space as the woman with the pistols starts firing them one after the other, aiming directly into the crowds of innocent passengers. The sawn-off shotgun snaps open as the dark-haired man nods and turns towards Ben while bringing two new cartridges from his pocket.
The ginger man presses at the thing in his pocket that must be a detonation switch for a bomb. The man with the sawn-off is reloading but that only gives him two shots. Everything in perfect clarity like it was before. There is no panic within Ben. Just an icy coldness that tells him what must be done. In that second he sees the woman as the most dangerous one and veers hard to smash into her from behind. They go down amidst a tangle of limbs just as the shotgun fires pellets over his head.