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
‘Five men from Birmingham stopped and attacked a woman and her daughter . . . Gita Choudhry . . . the little girl was called Meera. She was six,’ she continues as Ben shifts uncomfortably from the intense scrutiny. ‘Puncture in the rear nearside tyre. Gita was trying to change the wheel when the men stopped . . . they were going to rape the woman but Ben Ryder intervened . . . a seventeen-year-old kid got the knife from one of them and used it to kill five hardened gang members.’ She pauses while Harry stares at Ben with the same searching gaze. ‘Then years later he was on the London Underground when it was attacked and he killed again . . .’ She stares at Ben. Remembering the footage from Holborn she’d watched hundreds of times.
‘You believe me now?’ Ben asks gently.
She hesitates and narrows her eyes before blinking and looking away. ‘No. Ben Ryder died.’
‘I am Ben Ryder,’ Ben sighs heavily. ‘I was . . . I’m Ben Calshott now.’
‘You fought like Ben Ryder,’ she says, bringing that look back.
‘You saw him fight before?’ Harry asks.
‘CCTV,’ Safa says, looking from Ben to Harry. ‘The cameras at Holborn captured everything. Our Ben here moved exactly the same way Ben Ryder did . . . five years ago.’
‘They have cameras at Holborn?’ Harry asks.
Safa tuts and rolls her eyes. ‘Full-colour high-definition real-time recording.’
‘Safa,’ Ben says. ‘I am Ben Ryder.’
‘I am Harry Madden,’ Harry says.
She snorts and turns away again. ‘Mad Harry Madden . . . whatever.’
He draws breath to exhale through his hairy nose. ‘They called me that on the base,’ he says. ‘I did missions that I weren’t expected to survive . . .’
‘So you must be Safa Patel then,’ Ben says once Harry trails off with a finality that tells them he isn’t going to continue. ‘But if you’re really Harry Madden then that means Safa is ahead of us both . . . in years I mean.’
‘Are you an idiot?’ she asks coldly.
‘Sometimes,’ Ben admits ruefully. She smirks, then tries to hide it by scowling. ‘Guess you became famous then,’ Ben says as she looks over questioningly. ‘Harry is famous for what he did. I know I was famous from when I was seventeen—’
‘And after,’ she cuts in. ‘From Holborn.’
‘So you must be the same, from what you did at Downing Street.’
She nods, thinking. ‘The press knew who I was. I was posted on the front door once . . . just once . . .’ she adds sourly.
‘Ah,’ Ben says, realising what she means.
‘What?’ Harry asks.
‘They keep loads of reporters and photographers outside the Prime Minister’s house,’ Ben explains. ‘Safa is, er . . . well, forgive me being blunt, but she’s very attractive . . . I don’t mean that to sound weird . . .’
‘It’s fine,’ she says. ‘I’m not vain but I get it all the time. My eyes.’
‘Beautiful eyes,’ Harry says without any trace of weirdness.