‘Are you… are y-you an a-angel?’

He smiled. ‘No. I’m just an old man.’ His hand remained steady,outstretched towards Liam. ‘I’d understand if you chose to stay and die. Noteveryone decides they want to come.’

Liam felt a shudder. The floor beneath his feet convulsed and the air around them was filledwith the shriek of tearing sheet metal, the pop of unbuckling seams, as deck after deck abovethem began to give way one after the other.

‘Here it is, Liam. We’ve arrived at decision time.’

Liam pulled himself forward, up out of the water, desperately reaching out for the oldman’s proffered hand. If there was time, if his mind wasn’t in a free fall ofpanic, he might have wondered who this man was, and how exactly he intended to save them both.Instead, right now, he could think only one thing.

I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.

The lights suddenly winked out, leaving them in complete darkness.

Liam flailed with his arm blindly. ‘Where’s your hand? Please! I don’t wantto drown!’

His fingers brushed the old man’s. The old man caught it and held on.

‘Say goodbye to your life, Liam,’ he shouted above the thunderous din of the shipsplitting in two.

The last sensation that Liam was aware of was the vibrating metal floor ofthe passageway beneath his feet giving way, and falling… falling through darkness.

CHAPTER 3

2001, New York

Falling, falling… falling.

Liam jerked awake, his legs kicking out. His eyes still clamped shut, he felt with his hands- material, dry and warm covering him. It was quiet, almost silent, except for the softrustle of breathing next to him, and a distant muted rumble somewhere far above him. He knewthat he was mysteriously somewhere else — that much wasobvious.

He was on a bed or a cot. He opened his eyes to see an arched ceiling of crumbling bricksabove him, whitewashed long ago with paint that was now flaking off like dandruff. From thetop of the arched ceiling a single flickering light bulb dangled from a dusty flex ofcable.