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
No matter. Safa and Harry will get back and they’ll save the world while cracking jokes and firing guns. Ah, at least he met them, and that on its own is an honour. Just to have known them for those few months is enough and as he blacks out he feels regret that he was such a dick.
He is hit hard by something slamming into him with such force that the now empty bottle is ripped from his mouth. Hands round his waist hold him tight and he looks through his mask into the open eyes of Safa staring at him with that blazing look of utter capability and refusal to be beaten by anything or anyone.
Ben clamps on, pulling her body into his while their eyes stay locked. With the water streaming past them she wriggles one hand free and pulls the bottle from her mouth. For a second Ben thinks she’ll pull it from the strap. Instead, she pulls him in and pushes her lips against his. Ben takes too long to respond. Her tongue pushes between his closed lips, forcing them open so she can expel the air from her to him and whether by mistake or design it’s a better shock than any defibrillator can ever give and he snaps back to his senses, breathing Safa Patel into his lungs. Taking the life she gives and once again doing what she tells him.
She closes her eyes and pulls back to suck on the mouthpiece. She draws air into her lungs and exhales the stream of bubbles. She inhales again and holds the air while reaching out to guide him in. He goes willingly this time. Her hand on the back of his head. His hands on her cheeks. As their mouths meet her tongue comes out to tell him he can open his lips but they are already opening. She breathes out. He breathes in. The chaos of the moment. The chaos of the last six months. She left Ben severely injured in the bunker but now he is here, holding her, staring at her, and even through that water she can see the spark is back in his eyes. It is a crazy second. It is a second of life and death, of being pulled through the body of a huge rolling wave towards a time machine. His mouth is open. Hers too. She can exhale into him. He can inhale from her. It is confusing though. She knows that. The mischief in her eyes tells him she knows that. They might both die right now. Her tongue finds his. His tongue finds hers. Be heroes and do heroic things. Go through the ocean towards a time machine while kissing because later, if you survive, you can say it was an accident and you didn’t know what you were doing. It is brief. It is fleeting. It is over in a second. Did it even happen?