About Time by Jodi Taylor

Author:Jodi Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
Published: 2022-09-21T08:59:00+00:00

Ask anyone – either at St Mary’s or TPHQ – about ­Matthew Farrell’s legendary appetite.

‘A black hole for food,’ as someone once described him.

It was a constant mystery how one person could pack away so much food and yet still remain so small and scrawny. Officer Farrell himself frequently described it as a gift.

The stark experiences of his early years meant he never wasted food and he wasn’t wasting it now. He too watched and listened but he also continued to eat his stew. Yes, all right, he might be alone in an unknown time and place with unknown dangers threatening at every turn, but you never knew when the next meal would turn up. Or even whether the next meal would turn up.

Apart from the occasional glooping noise from the coffee machine there was only silence. Finishing his stew, he quietly laid down his cutlery, reached for the remains of his bread roll and began to mop up the gravy. After all, this might be his last ever meal.

‘How long have they been gone?’ asked someone. A tall, lanky man with hair like Sideshow Bob. Except his was black.

‘Too long,’ said one of the men at the windows, turning his head to peer out.

‘See anything?’

As he spoke, all the outside lights came on. Bright, white, dazzling lights. Shadows fled.

‘Yeah,’ said the first man at the window. ‘I can see them. They’ve split up. Jim and Clore are checking the generators and the control room. Tucker and Otto are heading for the gate. Looking for Andy, I suppose. No one else out there that I can see. Fisher – get on the door in case they need to get back in a hurry. Don’t forget the safe word.’

­Matthew chewed his last mouthful and swallowed. ‘Why would they need to get back in a hurry? Are we under attack? Are there locals here? Are they hostile? Can they get in? What’s going on?’

For a long time, he thought no one would answer and then the tall man with the wild hair came to sit opposite him.

‘It comes in the dark.’

‘Shut up, Trip. No point in frightening the lad to death.’

‘Oh, it’s far too late for that,’ said ­Matthew, conscious of his heart beginning to race. His mind went back to that moment just outside Jim’s pod. That sense of . . . was there such a word as unwelcomeness? Hostility? Resentment? ‘This lad’s already scared shitless. What comes in the dark?’

‘There’s something out there,’ said Trip. ‘A bear, perhaps. Or a lion. Or maybe a wild boar. Something big, anyway. In the forest. It comes out of the dark and . . . attacks . . . people. We’ve lost two men so far.’

‘When you say “attacks people” . . . ?’ said ­Matthew, and waited.

Trip remained silent.

‘He means it takes people,’ said a man from another table. ‘Johnson first. Then Li. Johnson was there one minute . . . and gone the next. No sound. No struggle. No trace. Just .

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