BACKTRACKER by Milo Fowler (e book reader txt) 📕

Pearl had to offer? A genius marriage of mutual benefit for Lennoxand Solomon. Each created supply and demand for the other: SYNCorp took care ofthe workforce, the consumers, while The Pearloffered employment for some and a place for the rest to spend their hard-earnedcredit on one-of-a-kind entertainment. Together, they were helping NewCityclimb out of the post-Plague depression and limp onward into a bright future.It was all about making the town look alive, making it easier to forget aboutthe decimated population.

But all cynicism aside, SYNCorp and The Pearl had done a lot ofgood for NewCity.

Despite all those deals struck in the dark.

Lennox had Mayor Reeves in his pocket; everybodyknew that. The mayor would never stand up to him—not now, not ever. JosephReeves had become nothing more than a figurehead, and his police didn't do muchmore than keep the peace. Most of them were rumored to be on a payrollsubsidized by Lennox himself.

The governors had originally contracted SYNCorp to replace onlyfifty percent of the human workforce destroyed by the Plague, but all you hadto do nowadays was walk into any place of employment and find it run almostentirely by synthetics. So much for the provincial mandate. And so, cynicallyspeaking, it was easy to look around town and say that NewCity was run by agangster and a corporate mogul sharing the same bed, both with the samemegalomaniac tendencies.

But who's looking?

He was. Up at the white lights that curled in a fancy,long-forgotten script, larger than life letters spelling The Pearl. Adark awning stretched from the massive front doors out to the sidewalk beyond,every centimeter of space underneath taken by the hundred or so potentialpatrons waiting to get in. They talked among themselves, umbrellas down attheir sides, collapsed and dripping. They weren't going anywhere, yet theywaited patiently as if standing in line were the ultimate destination in and ofitself.

Another decidedly un-human trait.

He turned away, sloshed through the downpour toward the alley andthe side door he knew would be unlocked. No SYN would think of getting insidethat way. It wasn't in their nature to break away from the mainstream. No otherhumans were out tonight by the looks of things. Not that they were much forthinking outside the box either, these days. Zombies, most of them. Addicted totheir virtual lives on the Link and less than adept at functioning in the realworld.

The blank face of that neglected little girl flashed through hismind, and he flinched. Another symptom of his psychosis: mental images showingup without warning, startling him with their appearance. Not a glitch with hisocular implants. He'd already had them checked. Twice.

He exhaled, forcing himself to focuson the moment. The downpour around him, torrential and white in the sparselight from a single lamp high above the alley. Rain pelting the slick pavementand exploding in black puddles collecting in every depression of the brickwork beneath him. Streams rushing pasthim on both sides,carrying scraps of trash out toward the street, to the gutters whereautomobiles splashed to the curb to release passengers with their umbrellas.

He looked for the old man's remains, his blood, any evidence ofwhat had happened less than an hour ago. Nothing. The mandroids had cleaned upwhat they could. The rain had done the rest. It was as if the kid's father hadnever been there.

The unmarked steel door opened easily, and Muldoonstepped inside the club, leaving the door to shut behind him. It did so with abang, and he cringed, glancing along the dark hallway inside for any sign oflife. He removed his hat, shook it once toward the floor, aware of the raucousmusic up ahead. What The Pearl was known for: BigBand, they called it.Music from a couple centuries ago. Alien to him, but so alive.

He took a step toward it, then another, pulling his arms free fromthe drenched coat that had gained some poundage during his recent stroll. Hepassed a door marked PRIVATE with a sensor grate beside it. Interestinglocation—first floor, near an unlocked side door. He filed this away,as was his habit. Nothing ever went unnoticed.

"May I help you?"

He turned sharply to find a pretty girl, twenty-something withbright eyes, standing behind him. Where she'd come from, he had no idea.

So much for nothing going unnoticed.

"Yeah, I'm-uh..." He wasn't off to a great start.

"Let me take that for you." She smiled and reachedtoward him with an ivory doll's hands. Before he knew it, she had hiswater-logged coat draped over her arm with his hat on top. "Looks like youmight be a little turned around. The coat counter is this way. Follow me, ifyou please." She laughed softly, tinkling like little bells. "Wet outthere, isn't it?"

"Raining cats and dogs," he muttered. He would beagreeable as long as he had to be.

She stopped, half-turned. "What does that mean?" Shesounded like she'd never heard the expression before.

He could have answered with a quip, a random answer that mighthave appeased her curiosity. But the truth was, "I have no idea."

She laughed again and resumed her gliding gait toward the end ofthe hallway and what lay beyond: glitz and glamour in the form of tuxedos and silverdresses moving to and fro with purpose. He glanced down at his own attire. Hewas going to stand out like a sore bum.

"It's funny how many sayings there are, and they often don'teven mean what they say," she tossed back over her shoulder. "Forinstance, here's one I heard just a few hours ago from one of our patrons: Ican read your face like a book. I mean really, what's that supposed tomean? What's a book?"

He almost smiled. He wanted to ask, "When were youhatched?" But that wouldn't be mannerly. SYNs had feelings, too—at leastthat's what he'd been told.

Of course she wouldn't know what a book was any more than a dog ora cat. Such things no longer existed, and she'd only been programmed with theknowledge she needed to carry out her duties at The Pearl. The forgotten pastdidn't matter, as long as she could take care of the coats that came floodingin every night.

"I'm new here, so I've got a lot to learn, that's for