BACKTRACKER by Milo Fowler (e book reader txt) 📕

not to take the devicefrom—from the Peddler?" she asked with sudden inspiration. "Can yousend me back then?"

He bit his lip, shaking his head as he stared at the watch on herwrist. "He'll be kind of paranoid, sitting in the middle of an empty trainstation, thinking they're out to get him—police, Blackshirts, you name it.That's where Cade will find him."

"Let me find him first." She took another step towardher father. "Please."

He chuckled, the frown vanishing. He glanced back at his syntheticcreations, all three of them eating ravenously. "Would you look at this?Hasn't seen her dad in over a decade, and already she's asking him forfavors!"

They nodded, glancing up at their creator and smiling. Humoringhim, it seemed.

Irena was close enough now to break his nose with a palm strike.She considered it. Might be therapeutic. "Justshow me how to use this thing. I'll convince him—"

"He won't recognize you, Irena. You won't be anyone tohim."

"Just let me try. Please?" She took one last step towardhim. He could embrace her now, if he wanted to. She might even let him."When I come back...if things are different, like you said—"

"Oh, they will be!"

Cyrus Horton smiled, gazing into his daughter's eyes. For a momentshe remembered the New Year's Days when he'd dress all in white like FatherTime and carry in an enormous bag of wrapped gifts for her and her mom,dropping it on their living room floor. He would lift her up and whirl heraround in circles, laughing with such incredible joy. More than she'd everknown existed.

"All things will be made new!" His twitching fingersbrushed her cheeks. With a tentative grace, he cupped her face in his roughhands.

Her abdomen tightened, cold and queasy. Lifting her wrist towardhim, drawing his attention to it, she said, "Show me."

He nodded, his eyes now brimming with tears. Smiling, sniffing, hetook her wrist in his hand as he changed the date on the watch's display to twenty years ago. He squeezedher hand once before releasing it. Then he backed away.

The watch bleeped, counting down.

"Brace yourself." It was the last thing she heard himsay.

The SYNs paused mid-bite to fix Irena with their fullattention.

An icy, dizzying vertigo swept over her, wrenching at her sensesas she felt herself convulse out of control. Then, just as suddenly, she stoodin the same room, in the same light, but without any tables covered inelectronics nearby. There were no machines or equipment around the perimeter of the room. It lay empty except for a pile of crates stacked haphazardly alongthe far wall, marked with NEWCITY TRANSIT in bold lettering.

Chilled,she hugged herself as goosebumps prickled across her skin. Nowwhat?

By all appearances, she wasn't in the same when as she hadbeen only a moment ago. And while she was tempted to stand in wonder at themoment—the enormity of the situation demanded it: She hadtraveled back through time!—there was obviously a more pressing matter. Without a backwardglance, she jogged to the heavy steel door, unbolted it, spun the creakingwheel lock, and heaved it open.

A rush of wind blasted against her, and she cowered in the floodof white light sweeping up the corridor from somewhere beyond. The concretebeneath her feet rumbled with the clamor of a passing train.

These subway tunnels were alive again. There would be commutersdown here instead of freaks. People would be traveling across the Provinces.

When she was fourteen, her father had taken her and her mother outof NewCity on a summer's day, out beyond the confines of the asphalt streetsand skyscrapers with myriad square windows, all the way to the countryside,untended, overgrown, wild. She had seen a deer—one of the last, she was sure.It stared straight at her, curious, not afraid. It looked so alone.

The train passed. The corridor returned to darkness. She held outher left hand to trace the wall as she started out cautiously, then picked upthe pace. Once she made it to the rails, she knew to turn right. That direction would take her to the NewCity Central TrainStation. Ruins infested with doped-up ghouls in her own time, but now, in this when,it was the bustling central hub of the city's thriving mass transit system.

So much had changed. Could it really be Harry's fault? Whatcould he have done?

It defied all logic to think one man's actions could do so much toundermine the future of a city and its people. Yet that was exactly what herfather claimed, that somehow, single-handedly, Harold Muldoon had been theculprit of all the irreparable damage everywhere to be seen in the world Irena hadleft behind.

She ran, cold but energized, unable to see farther than thesplashes of light cast by glow strips mounted along the rails at regularintervals, unable to plan beyond the only thought consuming her mind. Thatsomehow, if she managed to convince the Harold Muldoon of this time not to takethe BackTracker device, then Cade would never be forced to kill him.

She felt a sudden rumble beneath her feet, sensed electricityhumming against the stagnant air, reverberating the tunnel's concrete walls andceiling. Another train was coming. The darkness ahead of her, a hundred metersor more, gave way to white light forging through the black. It would only be amatter of seconds before it was upon her.

Jogging to the side, leaping over the track and mounting theconcrete steps beyond, she reached a vacant platform, one that would have beenlit up if anyone was waiting for the next train. Now it lay dark and silent.She ducked behind a thick support column as the train's blast of light and rushof air came and went, the rumble, the clamor becoming familiar to her onceagain, sights and sounds from the subway trains of her youth. As if she werereliving old memories.

She turned to resume her dash through the dark in the train'swake, but something in its afterglow caught her attention. A door stood ajar onthe other side of the platform, one marked MAINTENANCE. It looked as if someonehad recently come and gone. As every remnant of the train's light vanished anddarkness reclaimed its territory, she held out her hands to feel her way along.She slid the door open