birth for ever. It’s just pain – and you get a baby at the end of it.
She reached the table and lowered herself onto one of the benches, gritting her teeth against the pain that shot up her back. It hurt so much already and yet it had only just started. She couldn’t imagine how it could possibly get any worse and the thought that it would frightened her.
‘Better to walk around,’ said a small voice at her side. She turned, and saw the little girl who had arrived that afternoon. ‘It helps the baby come and stops your back hurting so much.’
Liv stared at her like she was a small angel sent to look after her. ‘How did you know the baby was coming?’
Hevva shrugged. ‘I’ve seen a lot of babies being born.’
‘Her mother was a midwife.’ Liv looked up and saw the man the girl had arrived with.
‘Do you mind if she stays nearby?’ she asked him, smiling down at the girl. ‘Can you stay? I’m a bit scared and I think you might make me brave.’
The girl nodded, looking up at her father for approval.
‘If you want,’ the man said. ‘I’ll stay close by – in case you need me.’
More people arrived carrying a mattress and sheets taken from one of the dorms inside the building. All around there was a hum of activity as stakes were found and driven in the ground to hold up privacy screens while others brought battery-powered lights on stands and set them up. They laid the mattress on the table and the doctor took Liv’s arm. ‘Let’s get you up here and take a look at you,’ he said. But Liv didn’t hear him as sudden pain exploded inside her blotting everything else out.
109
Shepherd walked away feeling anxious.
After what had happened at Göbekli Tepe he didn’t like letting Hevva out of his sight. They had only just arrived here: everybody had been very kind and welcoming, but even so. He stopped by the water’s edge, close enough for comfort but far enough so that the hiss of the fountain drowned out some of the noise coming from the makeshift maternity ward.
The stars were out already, millions of points of light speckling the night. He turned to face east where Taurus was rising and saw the new star shining between Zeta Tauri and Nath. He’d missed it the night before because he’d been sleeping like a dead man in the back of a moving car. It was odd seeing a new thing in something so familiar.
‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’
Kinderman joined him, his eyes tilted up to the same patch of sky. ‘I thought you were asleep.’
‘After all those caffeine pills, chance would be a fine thing. Besides, I wouldn’t miss this for anything.’
Shepherd looked back up at the bright new speck in the sky. ‘Miss what – what did Hubble see exactly?’
‘What do you think it saw?’
‘I don’t know. A Dark Star maybe?’
‘Now wouldn’t that be something! Interesting that you naturally assume it has to be something destructive.’
‘It’s not an assumption, it’s based on the evidence of what I’ve seen. And you did write “end of days” in your diary.’
‘Ah yes, so I did. You’re being very literal though, don’t you think? You’re ignoring the universal law that tells us energy never dies, it just turns into something else. Therefore, the end of one thing must also be the beginning of another. In point of fact you already know what Hubble saw, because you have seen it for yourself.’ Shepherd thought back through all the things he had come across since the investigation had begun but nothing came to mind that might answer his question. ‘You might want to start with the one thing you are sure is connected to the question,’ Kinderman prompted, ever the teacher.
‘The countdown?’
‘Exactly. Now in order to answer your own question you need to take a tip from Marcus Aurelius and ask: “what is it of itself?” – and don’t fall into your usual trap of making assumptions.’
Shepherd thought hard. What was a countdown? It was a steadily reducing measure of time, a prelude to something, like the start of a race or the launch of a rocket. Or was it? Kinderman’s question seemed to suggest it wasn’t the prelude to anything at all – it was actually the thing itself.
‘The countdown is what Hubble saw.’
‘Bravo, Agent Shepherd.’
Shepherd reached into his pocket, looking for his phone but his hand found something else. He pulled out the small, hard