Colony by Benjamin Cross (best way to read books .TXT) 📕

the last few months had taught him a thing or two about sacrifice.

He lay in bed for a while, eyes closed, searching for sleep. But it was too far beyond him. He waited until Darya had drifted back, then he got up and quietly made his way downstairs. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat in silence at the kitchen table, sifting through the job specification for his interview.

There was a sudden thud as the Daily Herald dropped through his letter box, and he grabbed it and sat back down. As he scanned groggily over the front page, his eyes widened:

RUSSIA WITHOUT GAS. Millions of homes across Russia, Europe and Asia are without gas as the state-owned Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS) goes into shutdown. There has been no official word on the cause of the systems failure, but analysts suggest that it may be the result of a crippling cyber-attack…

6 Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands

Doctor Callum Ross selected a flat, white pebble from the shores of Loch Ness. He brushed the silt away and held it in the flat of his palm. He dug his other hand into his pocket and produced the pebble Jamie had given him as a gift, on the same shore, four long months previously. He compared them. The two pale, sub-circular discs of water-worn stone were virtually identical. But to Callum, what they were, and what they represented, couldn’t have been more different.

“Here you are, son,” he said, offering up the new pebble.

The boy threw another suspicious look at Darya, who stood watching them from the top of the beach. Then, in his own time, he walked over and took the pebble. He turned it over and weighed it in his palm.

It was hard for Callum to believe that they were back at Dores Beach, the place where Jonas had first broached the subject of Harmsworth Island. In contrast to the heat of that fateful summer afternoon, it was now cool and breezy. Winter held sway over the loch; only a handful of dog walkers plied the beach around them and the tables in the Dores Inn beer garden were all but empty.

Jamie crouched down and did a few practice skims. He reared back as if to go, then he stopped. “Are you going away again?”

Since arriving home, the process of rebuilding his relationship with Jamie had been an understandably slow one. The nightly video calls that he had promised while aboard the Albanov had ended suddenly and without explanation. What was an eight-year-old supposed to think other than that his loser of a dad had lost interest? Again. And even though there was a good reason for the break in contact, there was nothing Callum could really say; as Darya had pointed out, the truth would either put the boy in counselling or freak his mother out so badly that she’d stop them from seeing each other altogether. For the time being then, the best thing that he could do was simply be there, be patient and let time do its thing. Just give to him time.

He walked over, knelt down and wrapped his arms around the boy. “Not without you,” he replied. “But you and I are going to go places together.”

“Where?” Jamie asked.

“Oh, faraway places. Timbuktu. Australia. Perhaps even the moon, if you’re interested?”

“And the North Pole!” Jamie said. “Can we go to the North Pole?”

Callum did his best to maintain a smile. After a brief silence he gestured towards the skimmer in the boy’s hand. “Come on, let’s see what you’ve got.”

Jamie turned back towards the loch, took a final practice skim and then spun the pebble out ahead of him. It dipped down onto the surface, leapt up high, impacted and leapt again, before tripping along and disappearing into the silty water.

“Eight, nine, ten, eleven!” they shouted together.

“Go on, Jamie!”

Jamie beamed and jumped up and down with excitement. “World record! World record!”

“Aye, it is, son. Definitely a new world record.”

They took it in turns to skim a few more, before heading back up the beach to Darya. Then, together, the three of them began walking north along the shore.

“You are very good with him,” Darya said, taking Callum’s hand. “You are good father.”

He smiled at her. “I guess only time will tell.”

As they walked, the sun began to set. Besides the moon, only a few dark smudges of cloud sat bold against the purple sky above. The water glistened and the surrounding peaks were tinged with a pale light. Hand in hand, they watched as Jamie ran ahead of them, kicking at the shingle and sending it tumbling towards the edge of the ancient loch.

“Do you think that you will ever tell him?” she asked. “About what happened on Harmsworth?”

Inside his pocket, Callum’s hand tightened around the pebble and he withdrew it once again. Releasing Darya’s hand, he strode the short distance down the beach, and looked from her to Jamie.

It’s just a stone, Dad.

Then he crouched down and slung it with all his might out across the water.

The pebble skipped along the surface, above the shadows and the silt, and through the moon’s reflection, before vanishing forever from sight.

As the string of ripples faded, Callum returned to Darya’s side and took her hand once more.

“One day,” he said. “One day I’ll tell him everything. If he’ll listen.”

Then they carried on along the shore.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Richard and Louise Lorne, Andrew Needle, Karen Summers and Tom Morley, for taking the time to review early drafts of Colony and provide their invaluable insight.

Thanks are also due to those amongst my family, friends and colleagues who have expressed their interest and encouragement during the writing of this novel.

Huge thanks to my agent Joanna Swainson, for her faith in me, her encouragement, and the time and effort that she spends reviewing, editing and promoting my books.

Finally, special thanks are due to my wife Hannah, whose enthusiasm for my writing is a constant source of inspiration, and whose love and support allow