Matt flicked through the files on the ARC team once again. Past, present and future, they were all of interest.

Stephen Hart… now that was one he would have liked to meet but it was too late now. Matt had questions. Mostly about Helen Cutter. But there were other questions.

Why would someone who had so much going for him make the ultimate sacrifice ( Read more... )

“I knew it was a boast!” Becker crowed. Matt looked unashamedly defiant.

Well, perhaps defiant was an exaggeration... Blank, perhaps.

They’d had an anomaly open halfway up a sheer cliff. Becker had needed to abseil down and lock it because Matt Anderson, supposed conqueror of Everest, had no rock-climbing experience at all.

“I bet you weren’t even in ( Read more... )

“Who was it?” Gideon asked. “One of ours?”

They were all one of theirs, of course. Even if the body wasn’t from their group of survivors.

There wasn’t much left anyway.

Matt was searching the remains. He held up an ID card, frowning at it in puzzlement before handing it over.

“I haven’t seen one of these in decades,” Gideon murmured, gazing at the ( Read more... )

Asda was heaving.

Matt had only gone in to pick up a few necessities. He looked around, seeing all the shoppers with their trollies laden down with foods.

Had convergence happened? Was the end already and he’d missed it? It looked as if people were stocking up for a siege.

A harassed-looking woman passed him, talking frantically on her phone. Her ( Read more... )

Matt’s dinner party wasn’t going well.

Becker poked at the lump on his plate, shrugged and took a bite. He chewed for ages.

“What do you think it is?” Jess whispered.

“Something from Matt’s childhood,” Abby hissed back.

Connor prodded the protein experimentally. “Future food… weird.”

“Do you think it’s rat?” Jess wondered.

Becker paused in his chewing ( Read more... )

Once there was a huge troll guarding an anomaly.

First Connor arrived.

"Who's closing my anomaly?" roared the troll.

"Connor," squeaked Connor.

"I’ll eat you," said the troll.

"No! I'm little. Wait till Matt comes, he’s taller."

"Fine. Leave!" said the troll.

Soon Matt arrived.

"Who's closing my anomaly?" roared the troll.

"Matt," said Matt.

"I’ll eat you," ( Read more... )

Sometimes it was all too much for Matt.

It was strange, because when he was younger it had never been too much, and things had been far worse. Life in the tunnels had been dark and brief and violent.

Now, living in civilised times, there was the opportunity to relax, to worry that sooner or later it would all happen again. Time worked in cycles, Matt ( Read more... )

“Well,” Gideon sighed, and Matt always dreaded when he started a sentence like that because it normally meant Matt had failed in some way. At least this time he already knew how. “I did warn you. Though I’d have thought it was common sense.”

“He was my friend,” Matt protested. “Things slipped out. I thought I could trust him.”

“And yet here you ( Read more... )

It wasn’t easy having Becker as a driver.

Becker disregarded speed limits, red lights, or any other sort of traffic control. He also seemed to think driving on the pavement was perfectly okay, slamming on the brakes outside A&E was fine, slowing down on corners was a waste of time, and off-road travel was perfectly okay. It played hell with the ( Read more... )

The predators had dropped their prey. It was dead anyway. The battle now was to see which of them would claim it.

They circled each other warily, first clockwise, then paused and turned the other way. Neither was willing to be the one to attack.

“It looks as if they’re dancing,” Gideon commented sadly. “Who knew they could be so graceful? We just ( Read more... )