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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

‘Is he dead?’ Roland asks.

‘No,’ Safa says.

‘You’ve got to break a man before you can rebuild him,’ Harry says weakly.

‘Rebuild him?’ Roland asks in a tight voice. ‘He’s going back before he dies . . . Malcolm?’

‘Behind you.’

‘Get Konrad, take Ben back to the tracks at Holborn.’

‘You’ll not be doing that,’ Harry whispers hoarse and low.

‘Harry,’ Roland blurts, ‘the man is spent . . . you’ve beaten him half to death already.’

‘He’ll be needing a doctor,’ Harry says, staring down at Ben.

‘Look at him,’ Roland says, holding a trembling hand out to point at Ben then round at the mess in the room. ‘He’s finished . . . he has to go back . . . he can’t die here. Where would we put the body? He can’t go back dead either. The autopsy will . . . he needs to breathe the fumes in the tunnel to get them into his lungs . . . God, Harry, he has to go back before he dies.’

‘Aye,’ Harry says, stretching his back. ‘I’ve beaten men, but none like this . . .’ He turns to look at Safa. ‘You were right.’ Safa shrugs, of course she’s right, she’s always right. ‘We’ll be keeping Ben,’ he adds. ‘Right man for the job after all.’

‘Can you get a doctor?’ Safa asks.

Roland groans. ‘Are you sure, Harry?’

‘Aye,’ Harry says.

‘Harry,’ Roland says gently. ‘Look at him. He’s done in . . .’

‘Did you tell him about Steph?’ Safa asks.

‘Aye,’ Harry says. ‘Never fought a harder man, I don’t think,’ he muses, shaking his head. ‘He came back at the end . . . reached the bottom, he did.’

‘You sure, Harry?’ Safa asks.

‘I am,’ Harry says with brutal honesty. ‘Get him a doctor, get him fixed and he’ll be the man you need . . .’

‘We’ve got a doctor in the folder,’ Malcolm cuts in.

‘Folder?’ Safa asks.

‘In the office,’ Malcolm says with a glance at Roland.

‘It is the list of people with skills for extraction,’ Roland says.

‘I’m not getting anyone else though,’ Malcolm says quickly. ‘Konrad won’t go back again either . . .’

‘We’ll go,’ Safa says quickly. ‘We’ll get the doctor . . .’

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Two

Hope. There is always hope. Deep down he knows he will die. Hundreds of miles from any living person in a sea that two hours ago was as flat as a millpond but now rages with waves cresting metres high and bursting white froth into the wind-whipped air.