‘What the fuck did you expect? Two of us are trained to kill, you fucking idiot . . . you drugged us and let us wake up on our own!’

‘I said I know,’ Roland replies, the worry back in his features. ‘We’re already impacting on the timeline. Three men dead . . . more injured . . . this bunker . . . simply by being here is risking an impact on the timeline, but if we don’t do something the whole world will end. I’ve done the best I can. Nearly everything here is constructed from organic materials and . . .’

‘Electric wires,’ Safa states. ‘The shutters. The bathrooms are made from stainless steel . . .’

‘Yes, I said nearly everything. The walls are concrete and we believe they will erode without trace over the next hundred or so million years. They are not reinforced with steel but purely concrete. The wiring is a risk yes, as are the shutters, but extreme times call for extreme measures. Malcolm and Konrad have done what they can, but as I keep saying . . . there is no precedent for this and we cannot involve anyone else. Those men you fought with were hired help. They had no idea they were in the Cretaceous period. They thought they were in a prototype detention centre in Berlin. Good God! There are three of us doing this. Just three and we only started a few weeks ago. Everything has been done in that time. The blasted concrete is still drying. We had no idea of the effects of oxygen toxicity and had to research and source medications. We had no idea if any bacteria on us can kill anything outside or the other way around. Trust me. Please just listen and trust me when I say this is being done on the fly as we go along.’

Silence settles. Desperation and passion in Roland, who sinks back in his chair and lets whatever mask he held in place slip from his face. Pure worry shows. Pure, desperate anxiety etched into every line on his face.

‘The program selected you,’ he says, looking at each of them in turn. ‘Of all the thousands of people that could have been chosen you three were the ones selected. Forgive my bluntness, but you have each killed several times, many in the case of Mr Madden. You have shown courage in the face of adversity and an ability to remain calm and cool at times of great pressure. You are intelligent, or at least competent in the skill sets required. Two of you are trained investigators . . .’

‘Yeah,’ Safa says slowly. ‘I’m really shit at investigating . . . that’s one of the reasons I went for Close Protection.’

‘Insurance,’ Ben points out. ‘I investigate insurance claims.’

‘We checked, Mr Ryder. Your skills are entirely transferable to the task required, and of course your actions when you were seventeen and again at Holborn.’