BooksBarbecue
Back Extracted Save as PDF
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

Then a whisper starts. The source is unknown but it grows and spreads through the intelligence community. Someone has done it. Someone has made a device, but not for the transit of goods over distance. The device is for the transit of goods and people across space and time.

Time travel.

All eyes turn to the retailers and tech giants. To the last, they deny knowledge and are as surprised as everyone else.

The virtual world becomes infested with advanced intrusive codes written to monitor the billions of social networking accounts and the written and spoken word in any and all forms. Secretly of course, because the wider public could never be told such a thing.

The quest starts. The hunt begins, but without a specific location, without a starting point, they are fishing in the dark in an ocean the size of a planet using a few rods in the vain hope of catching the one fish in the water.

2046

2046

He looks down at his almost naked body trying to decide if he should remove his boxer shorts. The symbolism of walking naked into the sea conflicts with his desire to maintain standards. He decides that dying naked is not something he wishes to do and lifts his head to look out at the mirror sea reflecting the full moon. Stars overhead. So many of them. So bright too. A calm night. Peaceful. Fitting. The sand moves softly between his toes as he places the note on the neatly folded clothes stacked tidily atop his shiny black business shoes.

It is time. Time to go.

Control has been lost. Dignity and pride taken away, but all from his own actions. Now he must pay the price and in choosing this fate, he can best serve his family.

‘Okay,’ Roland mutters, nervously tapping the sides of his thighs. ‘Right, okay.’

Still he waits. Unable to take the first step. His mind desperate to find reasons to stay another moment. He looks round to check his clothes and the handwritten letter are still there. What if a breeze gets up and blows the note away? It shouldn’t. The forecast was fine for the next few days. He bends down to adjust the pile of clothes and takes the shoes to place on top of the paper. Another adjustment to make sure the note is visible. Then another to alter the gap between the shoes. Should he put one shoe on the note or both of them? What if one shoe is under the pile of clothes and the other is on top? Will that make a difference? Will it be analysed later as the final loss of cognitive function? Will experts decide that he was stark raving mad to put one shoe on top and one underneath before walking into the sea in his executive-style boxer shorts?