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
Safa clamps her mouth closed. She can’t see or hear. She can’t reach out to touch anything and gets dragged so fast she has no hope of maintaining conscious thought. As her body starts to fight against her to draw air she feels only hope that the doctor will get through and save Ben. He must survive. Ben must live. He is Ben Ryder. He means something. The Prime Minister groping her. Other men that only saw her as a sexual object, but she knew there were decent men in the world and she saw one once.
They break free from the side of the wave into a second of blessed air that they suck into lungs begging to be used. Down they go, falling back into the water as the rope drags them towards the square of light at the base of the wave.
The blue square is so clear but the white hull of the yacht is also so clear. The torn sails hanging from the masts as the vessel shoots down the wave aiming for the portal. Harry screams out as though to give warning but his voice is whipped away by wind and sea. The yacht goes through into the bunker, disappearing from view with the mast cut clean in half by the upper edge of the blue light. An instant later the sensation of being dragged ceases with a sudden loss of forced motion.
‘Swim,’ Harry snaps the word out, gasping for air as he kicks with his legs, driving them down towards the light. She joins him, kicking hard with one arm holding the doctor and the other stroking through the water.
Get the doctor through. Get the doctor through. That’s all that matters. Get him through and give Ben a reason to live. Ben has to live. Get the doctor through.
They swim and kick and paddle against the force of the wave that keeps threatening to pull them back up the rising wall. They swim and kick and paddle with the weight of the doctor held in their hands. Eyes burning, mouths and throats stinging. They puke and retch and cry but swim all the same, but it’s not enough and the strength goes from Safa, her limbs refusing to work or do as bid.
‘Go,’ she pants and simply lets go of the doctor, knowing Harry has the strength to get him through, but the big man falters, snapping round as she fights just to keep her head above the water.