Read Chapter 3: — THE ROAD THAT WASN’T THERE

Forty minutes later, the rear tyre exploded.

The vehicle slewed sideways, hit a ridge and rolled into a shallow sand hollow.

There was a violent second of glass, airbags and noise.

Then silence.

Daniel tasted blood where he had bitten the inside of his cheek.

“Everyone answer.”

“I’m alive,” Toby said too loudly.

“Fine,” Maya said.

Samir groaned, swore and began forcing his door open.

They crawled out through the upper side of the vehicle. No broken bones. No major bleeding. One ruined tyre, a damaged axle and a mobile phone smashed against the console.

Daniel checked his own signal.

Nothing.

Maya looked toward the horizon. “How far is the camp?”

“By car? Half an hour,” Samir said.

“Walking?”

“Two, maybe three hours.”

“We should move.”

Toby stared at Maya. “Across that?”

“The alternative is sitting beside a dead vehicle.”

Daniel asked Samir about the nearest road.

The answer changed everything.

“We left the highway fifteen minutes ago,” Samir said. “If we walk back, we can reach it. Better chance of signal. Better chance of traffic.”

Daniel nodded. “We go back.”

They filled hydration bladders from the emergency stores and took food, hats and reflective blankets. The walk was less than two kilometres. It felt like twenty.

Heat rose through their boots. Wind pushed sand into their collars. Toby stopped joking after ten minutes.

On the highway they waited under the weak shadow of a road sign until, near four in the afternoon, an old four-wheel drive appeared.

The driver stopped.

Six people in a five-seat vehicle was illegal, uncomfortable and infinitely better than remaining in the desert.

By the time they reached the construction camp, Daniel’s shirt was stiff with salt.

The first sound he heard was shouting.

A broad-shouldered man in his late fifties stood outside the temporary project office, addressing a semicircle of engineers with the force of a storm warning.

“Ten kilometres of prepared formation compromised in one night and nobody can tell me why the mitigation failed? Don’t bring me a list of reasons. Bring me a solution.”

He turned as the newcomers approached.

“And where have you lot been?”

Daniel introduced himself.

The man’s eyes narrowed.

“Graham Bennett. Project director. If you’ve come for an international posting on your CV and a photograph in a hard hat, you can get back on the plane.”

Daniel was too tired to be diplomatic.

“Our vehicle rolled in the desert. We walked back to the highway, waited for a lift and came straight here. If I wanted an easy line on my CV, I’d have stayed in Yorkshire.”

For the first time Graham stopped speaking.

Behind Daniel, Toby made a tiny sound that might have been a prayer.

Graham looked from Daniel to Maya.

Something in his expression softened for half a second.

Then the shutters came down again.

“Fine,” he said. “You’re here. Work.”