BACKTRACKER by Milo Fowler (e book reader txt) 📕

escaped, Harry," Lennox said. He hadn'tforgotten about him, after all. "The police will want me toquestion him, once they've taken him in. And he'll talk, believe me. We'll getto the bottom of this."

Harry watched him, knowing Gavin Lennox was more than he pretended to be. "You some kind of boss-man around here?"

Lennox half-smiled as he met Harry's eye. "A boss-man?"

"Yeah. You know, in charge of things." The mandroids.The SYNs. They all did what he said. Just like those two monsters out in thealley when they'd ripped Cyrus Horton in two pieces. "You're the bigcheese."

Lennox chuckled. "Yes, Harry. I'm surprised you haven'trealized the shape of things sooner. But then again, seeing your father killedearlier tonight probably shook you up a bit. Interfered with your ability tothink straight."

Rage burned in Harry's belly. Every muscle in his small frametightened. He clenched his teeth, narrowed his gaze up at Lennox. Fought backtears as a shudder rattled his chest."It was you."

"I could pretend not to know what you're talking about, butyou're too smart for that." Lennox's smile faded. "And that makes youmuch less entertaining." He pretended to tap the plug behind his ear."Send up an escort for our young guest here. He'll be going to thepenthouse."

"You're not taking me anywhere." Harry stepped back,shaking his head. "You murderer!"

"Don't cause a scene, Harry. It isn't becoming." Lennoxreached into his pocket and withdrew what looked like a silver cigarettelighter. He matched the boy's backward step with one forward, maintaining thedistance between them.

"Stay away from me!" Harry shouted, but there was nobodyaround to notice. Everyone else on this level of The Pearl was gone. They wouldfilter back to their tables sooner or later, but not soon enough. Would theyeven care if anything happened to him—just some kid who didn't belong?

"Have you ever seen one of these, Harry?" Lennox held upthe lighter absently.

"I'm no smoker."

"Glad to hear it. Unhealthy habit, not to mention illegal—asif that's ever stopped anyone before. But there are so many other optionsnowadays when choosing a suitable addiction." He flipped off the cap andthe flame sprang upward, hot white, flickering hungrily in the air. "Isn'tit beautiful?"

"You some kind of pyro?"

"Look, Harry."

"You're not going to keep me—"

Lennox sprang forward and clutched the boy's throat in one hand,lifting him off his feet. "Look!"

Harry tried to scream, but the grip against his windpipe choked itoff. He struggled as Lennox held him by the neck, the flame burning in his eyes.The air in front of them seemed to move like water all of a sudden, but maybehe was hallucinating. Unable to pull in a breath. Too late to think of escape.This was it.

He was going to die here. The same man who killed his dad was nowkilling him.

Harry clawed until his hands fell limply to his sides, anddarkness collapsed his senses.

Gavin Lennox dropped the boy to the floor and watched him liethere. Was he dead? It didn't matter, really. He'd been a means to an end,nothing more.

Lennox ran his thumb across the smooth finish of the lighter, nowcapped, the flame trapped. His gaze wandered down toward the stage below wherethe simian members of Torment screamed their guts out over a cacophonyof grinding metal and took turns bludgeoning one of their groupies with a leadpipe. Lennox winced at the spray of blood erupting from their willing victim'smouth, head whipped aside by a vicious blow.

Will I ever really feel comfortable here?

This wasn't his home. He was a visitor from another world. Analien, in many respects.

Regardless, he found himself unable to pull his eyes away from thespectacle of onstage brutality. Part of him always felt like he was on safarihere, observing the natives in their natural habitat. Such fascinatingcreatures they were, in their own demented ways.

He wished he could stay. But he had to be getting back to his ownNewCity.

The police—his police—would have captured Yeng Zhu's abductor bynow. The boy's protector. Lennox smirked as he shifted his line of sightto the motionless body at his feet.

He'll never see you again.

ELEVEN

 

Twenty Years Ago

A tear skidded down Cade's ivory cheek as he watched HaroldMuldoon die at his feet.

"You." Eyes bulging, darting from the blade thatskewered his abdomen, Muldoon gasped and clutched Cade's hands on the hilt."Why?"

Cade pulled a hand free, reached for Muldoon's wrist and snapped offthe plastic timepiece without a word.

"Right," Muldoon rasped, chuckling shallow. "Youfollowed me here...for it."

His office was dark and silent. The computer system and AIassistant were offline. No interruptions.

Cade tugged the short sword free in a single movement, leaving hisvictim to hit the floor on hands and knees, clutching at his midsection asblood poured out between curled fingers.

This cannot be happening.

Behind the stone wall of his face, Cade screamed guttural cries ofremorse, twisting in turmoil, unable to stop his body from carrying out theatrocity occurring at his own hands. Hands that held the blade ready, preparedto strike again.

Muldoon glanced at his wound with incredulity. "Wasn't itenough...to run me through?"

"I must be certain that you are dead. Otherwise, I cannotreturn."

"Of course," Muldoon replied, as if it made perfectsense. "So...through the heart now...or off with my head?" Hisefforts at speech came garbled as black blood wet his lips and drooled onto thecarpet.

Cade watched Muldoon's bloody hand slide away from his wound,along his drenched shirt, toward the shoulder holster hidden under his jacket.Cade knew it was there without seeing it—the revolver with the pulse rounds.His own white robe was permanently singed across the chest from their earlierencounter at the train station, when Muldoon had gotten off a shot atclose-range. Cade would not allow that to happen again—even as everythingwithin him strained against his will and threatened to overcome it.

I cannot kill this man!

Cade's body moved without another thought. The blade of his kodachistruck lengthwise, slicing straight through flesh and bone, sweeping in an arc that cut the head free from Harold Muldoon'sshoulders and cast it halfway across the dark room. The decapitated bodyslumped to the floor and convulsed before lying still.

Then everything was still.

The bloody sword fell from Cade's fingers. He dropped to his kneesas tears streamed down his cheeks."Forgive me..." His lips