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
He forces her arms from his neck and feels a sudden urge to keep hold until she’s safe. She can breathe. She is tied on. He has to let go. He grabs his mouthpiece and before he can push it into his mouth he pulls her close and gently kisses her forehead. Then he is away, turning and swimming like a crazy man.
Harry is nowhere to be seen. Just a surface of immense water rippling and moving with the tide and wind. Ben dives down, heavier now from having got rid of one flotation device. Nothing. He goes deeper, working down into the depths that seem so dark, but still nothing. He turns and searches in every direction but still nothing. Where is he? Ben pushes on, looking and staring and hoping he will see a flash of movement or a shadow. Something. Anything. Please. Please, I have to find him.
The tug comes. The rope on his vest plucking that tells him they will start pulling soon. He hasn’t found Harry yet. The rope tugs again, harder and drawing him through the water a few feet while he searches and looks for a shadow or a flicker of light or something.
Then it hits him. He is looking down. He should be looking up. Safa was floating from the buoyancy vest and Harry must have been wearing the same thing. He twists to face up and spots him instantly. A dark mass of a shape metres ahead. Ben fights on but he has nothing left to give. His limbs are so heavy. His head pounds. He feels sick, weak and dizzy, but the man he is trying to save is Mad Harry Madden so he must work. He must work and train and do what Safa tells him. He must not be selfish. Don’t be selfish, Ben. Be Ben Ryder. I am Ben Ryder. He claws energy from deep within. Ben gets closer. So close now and like Safa, Harry is lifeless and still in the violence of the water.
Ben swims into the big man’s legs then up his body and just about grabs his vest as Harry’s rope goes taut and away they go. Cutting through the water again with that almighty pull drawing them both down into the depths as they are dragged through the body of the wave to the other square of light, where the old Malcolm and Konrad are operating the winch.