Redlaw - 01 (42 page)
“You can reach me, can’t you? Pull me up?”
Redlaw had killed Slocock. Had let Lambourne die.
Three out of three?
“John, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. For everything. It was all for Róisín. You see that, don’t you? All for her.”
Redlaw looked at his crucifix, then back down at his former boss.
“Explain it to her yourself,” he said. “See if she understands.”
The ladder took a full five minutes to circumnavigate the dome. By the time it had completed its circuit, there was only one person left to clamber back on.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Redlaw abandoned Lambourne’s Mercedes by the side of a B-road somewhere outside Hitchin.
He walked away from the car, over a stile, into a field. It was a beautiful spring morning. The English countryside was bursting into life, bright green and vigorous. Swallows swooped and larks soared; sheep bleated and cattle lowed.
Redlaw crossed the meadow grass, limping a little, supporting his right arm with his left. He had no clear notion of where he was headed or what he was going to do, but that was okay. There was sun on his face and nothing around him but open farmland, infinite paths and byways.
Halfway across the field, he wrenched the crucifix off his neck and tossed it behind him.
A dozen paces on, he doubled back and retrieved it.
Bending his head, noosing the crucifix back around his neck, accepting its size and weight, Redlaw strode on.
ALSO BY JAMES LOVEGROVE
Novels
The Hope
Escardy Gap
(co-written with Peter Crowther)
Days
The Foreigners
Untied Kingdom
Worldstorm
Provender Gleed
The
Pantheon
Series
The Age Of Ra • The Age Of Zeus • The Age Of Odin
Novellas
How The Other Half Lives
Gig
Dead Brigade
Collections of Short Fiction
Imagined Slights
Diversifications
For Younger Readers
The Web: Computopia
Wings
The House of Lazarus
Ant God
Cold Keep
Kill Swap
Free Runner
The
5 Lords Of Pain
series
The Lord Of The Mountain • The Lord Of The Void
The Lord Of Tears • The Lord Of The Typhoon
The Lord Of Fire
Writing as Jay Amory
The
Clouded World
series
The Fledging Of Az Gabrielson
Pirates Of The Relentless Desert
Darkening For A Fall • Empire Of Chaos
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Clint Langley supplied an awesome cover that made the book look much cooler and made me feel much cooler about the book. David Moore did yet another terrific copy-edit that curbed my writerly excesses and trimmed the manuscript’s marbling of fat. Nick Sharps kept me entertained and amused with his comments on my blog. Andy Remic showed by example how far nerve and a screw-you attitude can get you. And all the folks at Solaris – Jonathan Oliver, Ben Smith, Jenni Hill and Michael Molcher, as well as the aforementioned Mr Moore – have been stars.
Also from Solaris Books,
The Age of Ra
by James Lovegrove...
The Ancient Egyptian gods have defeated all the other pantheons and divided the Earth into warring factions. Lt. David Westwynter, a British soldier, stumbles into Freegypt, the only place to have remained independent of the gods, and encounters the followers of a humanist freedom-fighter known as the Lightbringer. As the world heads towards an apocalyptic battle, there is far more to this leader than it seems...
"The kind of complex, action-oriented SF Dan Brown would write if Dan Brown could write."
The Guardian
on
The Age of Zeus
Available to buy from the Kindle Store
Also from Solaris Books,
The Age of Zeus
by James Lovegrove...
The Olympians appeared a decade ago, living incarnations of the Ancient Greek gods, offering order and stability at the cost of placing humanity under the jackboot of divine oppression. Until former London police officer Sam Akehurst receives an invitation to join the Titans, the small band of battlesuited high-tech guerillas squaring off against the Olympians and their mythological monsters in a war they cannot all survive...
"The kind of complex, action-oriented SF Dan Brown would write if Dan Brown could write."
The Guardian
on
The Age of Zeus
Available to buy from the Kindle Store
Also from Solaris Books,
The Age of Odin
by James Lovegrove...
Gideon Coxall was a good soldier but bad at everything else, until a roadside explosive device leaves him with one deaf ear and a British Army half-pension. So when he hears about the Valhalla Project, it’s like a dream come true. They’re recruiting former service personnel for excellent pay, no questions asked, to take part in unspecified combat operations.
The last thing Gid expects is to find himself fighting alongside ancient Viking gods. The world is in the grip of one of the worst winters it has ever known, and Ragnarök - the fabled final conflict of the Sagas - is looming.
“The kind of complex, action-oriented SF Dan Brown would write if Dan Brown could write.”
The Guardian
on
The Age of Zeus
Available to buy from the Kindle Store