me. But when I was on the chain and as I was reaching for his hand ... he withdrew it! And I saw his eyes, looking beyond me into the night. I glanced over my shoulder, saw them:'Prison guards, armed and taking aim! I looked up at Paolo, his face staring down at me. "I sorry, Jake," he shrugged. "But they promise me ..." And then, cutting him short, the crack! of a rifle shot...'Jake paused, swerving to avoid a pothole, and Liz took the opportunity to ask:'Is that when it happened? When you ... moved?'He shook his head. 'Not quite. But Liz, you know how they say you don't hear the one that kills you? Well, it's true. I know because I heard the bark of that first shot, but I didn't feel a thing. Paolo, on the other hand ... his blood splashed me as his right eye turned black. Then he was falling, and taking me with him.
It was only a few feet, but with him on top of me I hit the ground like a ton of bricks. Just as well because there was more shooting, shouting, the flash of bullets sparking where they spanged off the wall.'That's when it happened. But exactly what happened ... I don't know to this day. And something very weird: if you don't hear the one that kills you, how about seeing it? I mean, did you ever hear of anyone actually seeing a bullet in flight? Of course not; and please, no cracks about phoney stage magicians who catch them in their teeth!'Yet I saw ... something. A flash of fire from a ricochet? It could be. But it didn't look like fire. It was tiny, bright, and it came came right at me - at my head - and couldn't have missed me. If it had been a bullet, then I was dead ...'... But it wasn't, couldn't have been, and I only thought I was dead.'Liz nodded, her mouth suddenly dry. Because for a moment, as Jake had finished speaking, she had received a vivid impression of something alien to all science and knowledge, something from outside. She'd 'seen' his meeting - his confrontation? - with what he'd described. A transitory thing, it came and went, like a bright flash of fire reflecting from the surface of his mind ... or still burning in his mind?'That was when you did it/ she said hoarsely, and cleared her throat. 'That was when you moved, took the Mobius Route.''There was an indescribable darkness,' Jake told her. 'More than darkness, a nothingness. It was death; I mean I thought it was death, for what else could it be? But I was drawn into and through it, towards a point of light.''A typical out-of-body experience,' Liz said. 'A near-death experience, as certain survivors are supposed to have known it. The Light, which you refused to enter.'
But Jake shook his head. 'Refused nothing; I had no choice; I was dragged right in! But suddenly there was gravity, weight, and I'd been struggling with the darkness - whatever it was - and the wrong way up. I emerged upside down, fell, smacked my head against something ... a desk, as it turned out. So you see, the second bout of darkness wasn't nearly so drastic. I was merely unconscious. Or about to be.
'Anyway, even as I passed out I remember there were alarms going off, someone hammering at a door, a voice shouting. Then nothing more.''Not until you came to at E-Branch HQ in London,' Liz said. 'That's where your talent had taken you: to Harry's Room... sanctuary.'He shook his head in denial. 'Not my talent. Oh, someone's, as it appears. Harry's, maybe? But not mine, Liz, not mine ...'The radio crackled into life, Trask's voice saying: 'All call-signs, but especially Hunter One, this is Zero One. Maybe five miles up the road from here, the chuck wagon. Base camp, where we eat, drink and debrief. Those with beds in the ops vehicle, use 'em. Tentage for the rest. Or should you prefer to stretch your legs you can put up your own tents and bivouacs. And Hunter One, I'll be wanting to speak to you. All acknowledge.''Hunter One, roger,' Liz answered into her handset. And in strict numerical order, coming through the hiss and crackle of static:'Hunter Two, roger.''Hunter Three, roger,' and so on.Jake shifted his position in the driver's