14
Birmingham. The city was still some thirty miles away, but he could clearly see it on the horizon now. And Steven’s heart sank. The temporary elation he’d felt at having made it this far, already eroded by the events of the last half hour and the knowledge he still had at least the same distance to travel again to reach Criccieth, was wiped out altogether by what he saw in the distance.
A wide swell of orange and white lights nestled deep in the dark of everything else, Birmingham’s skyline might not have had the immediate familiarity of other major cities, but it was still familiar-looking: the concentrated clump of tall office tower blocks in the business heart of the place, the red lights on top of the telecoms tower – the pint-sized sibling of the London landmark, the sprawling su
