Z. Apocalypse (26 page)

Authors: Steve Cole

Finally, when the trial was over and the glaring eye of the world had moved elsewhere, the last scraps of old Adam’s cocoon would fall away, and a new Adam would at last emerge.

Z. Adam
, he thought wryly.

That was the plan, anyway.

But what exactly do Z. Adams do?

‘Ahhh.’ His dad, sat beside him on the bench, sighed contentedly. ‘To feel the sun on your skin and know you have nothing to do today – this is officially the life.’

Adam smiled. The publicity had resulted in real corporate interest in developing Ultra-Reality as a major games system at last, and his dad was hot property.

‘I guess you could say, it’s the life,’
Adam agreed. ‘But is it the best life?’

‘My son, the philosopher,’ teased his dad.

‘Seriously,’ Adam protested. ‘I think I need to have the best life ever. After all, how many people can say they sacrificed themselves to save the world and lived to talk about it?’ He felt a stroke of sadness for the different him, trapped in the
Geneflow base, waiting for the reactor to run wild. ‘Yeah . . .
I’ve got to live enough for
two
. I’ve got to live—’

‘The
Z
. life?’

‘Right,’ Adam agreed. ‘A life at its zenith . . .’

Mr Adlar smiled. ‘We’ve reached our highest point through surviving our lowest. I suppose high and low will always chase each other.’

Adam smiled. ‘Now you’re at it. My
dad
, the philosopher.’

‘Sorry.’ Mr Adlar looked at him and grinned. ‘If you’ve got to live enough for two,
what would you say to a couple of ice creams right now followed by a couple of pizzas from Browns?’

‘I’d say, “Yum”,’ Adam decided. ‘That’s my kind of philosophy . . .’

As he and his dad set off towards the ice-cream stand, for a moment the sun seemed to flicker. Adam felt a shadow pass over him. He looked up. But there were no blurred outlines in the sky, and no distant, bestial cries reached
his ears.

‘What’s up?’ asked his dad.

‘Oh . . . nothing.’
Imagination, I suppose
, Adam thought. It was kind of comforting to think that Zed or Keera might still watch over him in the years to come – but he knew it was incredibly selfish of him too. He had to hope the Z. beasts would find some greater purpose on their journeys; a way to be as
happy as two fantastical animals caught out of time
could ever be.

We’ve all won our freedom. And I guess in the end we’ll figure out what to do with it
.

He looked up at the wide-open blue that stretched high above the park and sandstone, that reached around the world.

The sky’s the limit
.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to all who have helped along the way with my Z-trilogy on both sides of the Atlantic. But particularly . . .

In the UK, to Ruth Knowles, Kelly Hurst and Jessica Clarke at Random House for their support and input . . . to my brilliant agent, Philippa Milnes-Smith . . . to Joel Hales Waller, a true inspiration . . . to Jason Loborik for moral support and his help
in preparing an early draft of the manuscript . . . and to Jill, Tobey and Amy, my Z. nearest and dearest.

In the USA, to Michael Green and Tamra Tuller at Philomel for their patience and guidance, and to my brother-in-law Major Denis Dallaire, USAF, for his invaluable advice on military matters.

About the Author

Born in 1971, Steve Cole spent a happy childhood in rural Bedfordshire being loud and aspiring to amuse. He liked books, and so went to the University of East Anglia to read more of them. Later on he started writing them too, with titles ranging from pre-school poetry to Young Adult thrillers (with more TV and film tie-ins than he cares to admit to along the way). In other careers
he has been the editor of Noddy magazine, and an editor of fiction and nonfiction book titles for various publishers.

Also by Steve Cole

Z.REX

Z.RAPTOR

And for younger readers by the same author, these fantastic series:

www.stevecolebooks.co.uk

Z. APOCALYPSE
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 15771 6

Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company

This ebook edition published 2012

First Published in Great Britain

Red Fox 9781862307797 2012

The right of Steve Cole to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
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