I remember one evening watching from the doorway as you read to Lily the poetry of Maya Angelou: ‘Phenomenal Woman’ and ‘Still I Rise’. It was electrifying. Every little girl should have that experience: hearing a woman like you read those poems.

And, oh my God, you’re tough! I often recall that time when we were racing around the world chasing the six Ramesean stones and I was waylaid, so you led the team into Africa. And there, single-handedly, you beat that Neetha tribe. Bad. Ass.

And after all that, when I think of you, all I can see is your smile.

Zoe, it’s been the honour of my life to be your husband. I’m so sorry it had to end.

But Zoe would never read it.

She had beaten Jack to the Other Side.

Second Test of Worth: The Endless Tunnel

26 December, 1000 hours (local time)

Jack West sat in semi-darkness, his head buried in his hands.

He was in a stone tunnel of some kind, but he didn’t care.

He was still thinking about Zoe, taken down into the abyss during the cataclysmic fall of the upside-down skyscraper.

Lily knelt beside him while Smiley stood guard. Rastor had come through here only minutes before and they weren’t sure if he was still nearby. Easton edged further down the tunnel, his gun-mounted flashlight raised, seeing where it led.

Lily wrapped an arm around Jack’s shoulder. ‘Oh, Dad.’

Jack said nothing. He just stared into space, mute with shock.

Lily whispered, ‘Dad, we have to keep going.’

Jack said nothing.

When he looked up at her, his eyes were moist with tears.

‘Do we? Do we have to?’

Lily was taken aback. She’d never heard him say anything like that before. Ever.

‘Of course we do,’ she said. ‘We have to stop Sphinx. And Rastor and those asshole monks.’

Jack said nothing.

‘Dad, look at me.’ Lily grabbed his chin and made him face her. ‘This sucks, it really does. You loved her, I know. I loved her, too, but she’s gone. You knew this could happen. This is why she wrote her note, why we all wrote our notes.’

Jack was still silent.

He just stared blankly back at her.

Lily didn’t let up. ‘What are you going to do now? Stop? Because if that’s what you’re gonna do, I have to tell you that I can’t. I won’t stop. If you give up, I’ll just go on by myself, because someone has to.

‘Now, I could give you some bullshit pep talk about Zoe not wanting you to quit, but you’re smarter than that, Dad, and we both know it.