Bedlam by Brookmyre Christopher

Author:Brookmyre, Christopher [Brookmyre, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781405515962
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2013-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

Fuck yeah.

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There was no drop this time, and no gradual coming into focus of his surroundings. It was like a light being switched on, an immediate awareness of being somewhere new, but what he saw was no less disturbing than what he’d found in the last world. He feared for a moment that he was in space, conscious of blackness either side. He was standing on what looked like green plastic, a path stretching ahead of him in a perfectly straight line. It felt substantial enough underfoot, but less reassuring was the fact that it appeared to be barely two feet wide. Instinctively he put out his arms for balance, which was when he discovered that the surrounding blackness was the opposite of space. It was like a force-field, or maybe just a glass wall.

Up ahead he could see a staircase made of transparent plastic, climbing ultimately out of sight beneath an arch, and above the staircase there was a ledge, another narrow platform this time made of red brick. Somewhere up ahead he could hear machinery, a busy ticking, whirring and squeaking like some huge clockwork device that Wallace and Gromit might have knocked together.

He became aware of movement behind the transparent staircase, a blue shape coming closer, and as it did, the sound grew louder. Refracted as it was through the zigzag plastic, Ross couldn’t make out much detail, only that it was at least his height and rhythmically pumping in a blur of what could as easily be limbs or pistons. Either way, he was glad the staircase was there to provide a barrier, as it wasn’t like he could sidestep the thing.

This assessment of his options prompted him to look behind, something he achieved a lot faster than he was expecting or was indeed comfortable with. Instead of physically pivoting to execute an about-turn, he found himself facing the opposite direction the instant he thought it. There was no sense of movement; rather it was like blinking and suddenly seeing the rear view; but strangely this absence of movement prompted something similar to motion sickness, like his body was confused by his eyes telling him something new without the usual corresponding effort.

Perhaps appropriately, the new view wasn’t worth any effort, showing as it did a brick wall at the end of another few yards of green plastic path. The clockwork sound grew still louder, prompting Ross to execute another not-turn in time to see the shape penetrate the staircase like it was a hologram.

‘Bloody hell.’

There was a six-foot Swiss-army knife heading straight for him, blades, corkscrews and things-for-getting-stones-out-of-horse’s-hooves pumping like the arms and legs of an infuriated Showsec concert steward who’s just seen someone enjoying himself and is making a beeline to intervene.

Ross looked behind again, just in case he’d missed a possible holographic aspect to the brick wall hemming him in, or a conveniently breakable grate in the green plastic floor. Could he reach the platform above? It looked

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