Rifter (The Survival Project Duology Book 1) Read Free

you looking at this?”
    Well, obviously, he wasn’t. Atwood could see his screen from where he was. Leo glanced back, not really taking much notice other than that Atwood was staring intently at something, but he often did that. He was conscientious, a model employee. The truth was, nothing remotely interesting had happened for months and he didn’t suppose anything had then. The disruptions had all but dried up, and seeing as tracking them was the sole purpose of The Department, it made the days drag on. All they were able to do was analyse previous events. There were only so many times you could try to find something new in the same data.
    Atwood tapped at his screen with his nail. “Leo, I think we’ve got one.”
    Leo raised his eyebrows. Obviously, Atwood meant he thought he’d discovered a disruption. Leo wasn’t convinced.
    “What?” he asked, dragging the word out as he swivelled his chair to face his colleague.
    “An anomaly,” he said.
    Leo didn’t want to move. He was quite comfortable where he was.
    The thing was, Atwood wasn’t a joker like some of the others. If he said he’d located a disruption, he would genuinely think he had. He’d done that a dozen times already and he’d only been working there seven months. But at least he was trying, very. Leo was only ever conscientious when he was forced to be when he was at work, and even though his legs ached to move in the other direction, Atwood’s face was such a mixture of seriousness and excitement that he couldn’t ignore it.
    “You really do need to see this,” he urged again.
    Leo got up and looked over Atwood’s shoulder. He focused on the screen. Even though the angle meant the sun glared across the image, he could see that there was a blip — a very distinctive blip, the right kind of blip — the location of which was a few hundred yards from where they were. He knew exactly where that blip was. Golden Park.
    “No way,” he said, in an almost whispered tone of disbelief.
    He could feel a smile forming on his lips, so he gritted his teeth together with such ferocity it hurt. Relief coursed through him. At least, something was going right. He wanted to cross his fingers. He wanted to send a silent prayer to the god of rifts. He wanted to go and investigate on his own.
    But none of those things happened.
    Maybe, if he’d been the one keeping an eye on the screen, he would’ve been the one who had discovered the rift. Then, he could’ve engineered a different outcome, as in, not telling anyone and going on his own. But he hadn’t. He’d been thinking about what he was going to get for his evening meal on the way home, and about the box of electronic parts that had been delivered to his flat the day before.
    But, there was a rift, and Atwood had discovered it, and now things would be more complicated.
    There were no more words between them. There was a procedure and they were going to follow it. If a disruption formed, it was their responsibility to be first on the scene, and that couldn’t have been easier, given the location. They didn’t even have to contact anyone, because there were others whose role it was to inform their boss. All they had to do was to press the button on the wall as they left. He let Atwood do it. It was his find.
    They ran for the stairs, because they knew the lift would take too long. There was no need for a car either — Golden Park was easily within running distance. Using any kind of transport would only slow them down. Leo checked his holster, not because he thought his gun might not be there, but merely for comfort.
    “Bit of a coincidence,” said Atwood, through deep breaths, as they pushed through the rotating door and out into the bright sunlight of an August morning. He assumed Atwood meant it being so close.
    “Yes,” he replied and pushed his legs to move a little faster. He didn’t want to have a conversation, because it would slow him down. There really was no time to lose if they were