Page 85 - Demo

85He looked at the device on his wrist and put his fingertip on the glass. %u201cActivate beacon, provide me a route to the closest spot where human life resides.%u201dHe waited until a route appeared as a projected hologram in front of him. He memorised it and touched the glass again, ending the display. Standing up, he took in his bearings, and strode off into the darkness.Kelly sat by the coal fire, staring at the glowing embers, wondering how her husband had really died. The notification and letter of sorrow had arrived thirteen months ago, but never mentioned any real detail. It had only informed her that he had %u2018Died In Action%u2019 on the beach of Dunkirk. So many English soldiers died there. But it never said whether he was shot, drowned, or was hit by shrapnel. Did he lie there on the sands in pain and agony, or slip with burning lungs gasping for air beneath the waves? Did it matter? Without him, her man, she was left a long way from her family in Ireland, to manage as best she could on her own. There were no immediate neighbours. The closest village was a three-mile walk away. Sure, the area was more or less war-safe as there was no gain in bombing empty countryside. But food and resources were in short supply. Her small holding only just provided enough for herself and, when he was alive, her The sale of the produce in the village barely covered the rent she paid to the greedy, nasty, land-owner%u2014a rich toff who delighted in enjoying his still-lavish lifestyle while the rest of the population remained on the breadline.The German U boats were winning the war in the Atlantic, sinking more merchant food ships than Royal Navy ones. All-in-all, the future for the British Isles looked bleak, despite Churchill%u2019s morale boosting radio broadcasts, she thought. Despite being born and raised in Eire, The Time Traveller