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
‘GO BACK UP,’ she shouts at Harry, pointing at the doctor. Harry keeps going, swooshing down into the base before powering on to turn and come back up the incline while nodding in satisfaction at the ability of the boat.
She’ll have one chance to grab him. She knows that. The wave is so steep that to try and stop will cause the boat to plummet back down. Harry judges the approach, watching both the wave ahead and Safa’s arm pointing to the spot to aim for.
She scrabbles forward, landing with her belly on the inflated rubber skirt as the water pummels into her face. Snatched glimpses now. An orange blob in the water and the realisation hits her. Leverage. She has nothing to pull against. The man will be heavier than her and if she pulls him, she’ll just be pulling herself into the water. She peers round searching for something she can hook her feet into but the handgrips are too far apart. There’s nothing to grip or hold. No way of dragging him in. She can’t even try to do it one-handed because there’s nothing for her left hand to hold.
Harry powers on, driving the last few metres then easing the throttle as they reach the orange vest and the doctor, now face down in the water. Safa reaches out as Harry notices with alarm she has nothing to secure herself with and he can’t release the rudder or lose the power either.
‘SAFA, NO,’ he bellows, but too late. She lunges over, grips the vest and tries to heave the doctor up using just the strength in her arms but the man is too heavy and she slips into the water. Harry twists the grip as hard as he can, making the boat surge past them both, then dives over the side and into the freezing, turbulent waters. Instantly he feels a complex assault to the senses of plunging down into violently moving water while gaining the sensation of rising up the wall of the wave.
His head breaks the surface, driven up by powerful kicks of his legs. He spins round, seeing Safa grappling to turn the doctor on to his back.
Harry swims hard against the current, forcing his body down the wall as they rise up and into his arms. He grips them both in a bear hug, lifting them up and out of the water while Safa gets the doctor’s face free of the water. She gasps ragged breaths, spewing the gag-inducing seawater from her mouth and throat. Eyes stinging from the salt and all the time rising higher and higher with the rope trailing loosely behind them. The RIB, having reached the apex of its climb, now plummets down the wall, aquaplaning on the smooth underside and buzzing past their heads so close they could have caught hold if not for the speed of the thing.