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
‘And?’ Ben asks weakly as Harry simply watches on with interest.
‘Oh, you want the rest?’ she asks scathingly. ‘My turn is it? Oh, okay then. I’m so happy to comply and do as you want, Ben Ryder.’
‘I don’t—’
‘PC 01899 Patel,’ she cuts him off. ‘I was on duty yesterday. Do you want the names of the other officers on duty?’ she asks lightly. ‘No? Got them already? Well, let me proceed then. I commenced duty and first went upstairs to relieve the officer on day duty. I then remained on the top floor until the Prime Minister came back, at which point I moved downstairs to the static point beside the lift. I then remained at that static point until the Prime Minister had concluded his business and at no time did I see anyone other than the normal Downing Street staff . . . no, hang on . . . there was a private business caller . . .’ The overly sarcastic voice goes as she becomes serious and earnest.
‘He was only there for half an hour and there was something odd about him. Have you checked him? We didn’t have his details, only that he was a private business caller . . . check him.’ She nods at Ben and Harry as though they can arrange for that to happen. ‘Then he . . . the Prime Minister I mean, I took him up to his rooms and, er . . .’ she hesitates. ‘I stayed in the upper corridor until he called me in for a bug sweep . . . I was, er . . . we were in his study when the first explosion came. I got him down the stairwell, I engaged the attackers on the ground floor and know I killed three, possibly four. I got the PM down into the bunker then went back upstairs. I definitely got six more confirmed kills.’ Harry leans closer. ‘Then I heard the firefight in the rear garden and went there until the . . . shit,’ she spits. ‘The two police officers . . . there were two police officers that came in but they weren’t armed! Christ, how did I not notice? They came from the front of the house and asked me my name. They asked me two or three times like they wanted to be sure or something then one of them attacked me. Yes,’ she blurts with an apparent fresh memory recall. ‘He jumped on me and stuck something into my neck and the other one was throwing flash-bangs into the garden . . .’
‘In your neck?’ Ben interrupts as her words spark a fresh memory.
‘Must have been a sedative,’ she says, looking down at the ground between her feet as though struggling to remember. ‘One of them had . . . he had a broken nose and black eyes . . . he said something about . . .’ She looks up at Ben. ‘About Ben breaking his nose . . .’
‘Me?’ Ben asks, recoiling. ‘I remember being stuck in the neck but . . .’
‘In the neck?’ she asks.