BACKTRACKER by Milo Fowler (e book reader txt) 📕

with a grinas toothy as it was eager. He hadn't taken his eyes off Irena fromthe moment she'd appeared out of the air. Barnes proceeded to plow his ribswith her elbow.

"What he means to say is, we understand. The developmentphase is always prone to certain...hiccups?" Barnes attempted a smile, buther gaunt cheeks seemed unaccustomed to the expression, and she let it fade.

Emert clapped the clone on the back with his massive paw. "Wewish you the best of luck. Tell Dr. Solomon that our thoughts are withhim." He escorted the clone to the lab door. The others closed in, and Irenafollowed the form of her father. "You know the way out? Hate to rush youlike this, but you know how it is. We've got our own little hiccups toattend to on this end. No rest for the wicked!"

"Of course, of course. We know the way, but..." Theclone's expression clouded, and he cleared his throat. "This isn't exactlyour neighborhood. Any chance you could loan us a keycard to exit thiswing?"

"Not a problem." Emert held out his palm without lookingback. "Wilson. You won't mind letting them borrow yours."

"You can't be serious," Wilson fumed.

"We have work to do, and so do they. Let's help them be ontheir way."

Barnes and the others glared at Wilson until the peer pressure wastoo much for him. With a muttered oath, he begrudgingly relinquished thelanyard from around his neck. The white keycard dangled from his clenched fist.

Irena watched as her father's clone bowed his head graciouslyand took the card. Then he turned to escort her out of the lab by her elbow.Only when the door had swished shut behind them, leaving them alone in thecorridor outside, did she exhale.

"Nervous?" He grinned as he led them onward.

Was I holding my breath? "How did you know?Dr. Solomon..." My uncle.

"We are forty years in your past. Your uncle was the seniorscientist in the north division at this time. I merely assumed that AlphaGeminorum was run in a similar fashion as it is in my day—double-blind, witheach wing's lab techs completely ignorant of what goes on in the rest of thecomplex." He winked.

"Deception is in your nature." She watched him.

That made him pause. "So it would seem."

His apparent aptitude for thinking on his feet could prove to beuseful. Particularly when they arrived at the modest home of the Muldoon familyand would have to find some way to kidnap their only son, lying sound asleep inhis crib.

FIFTEEN

 

Now

"Where are you?" she asked.

Gavin Lennox felt the sheets stir beside him. Her breath camewarm and humid against his ear as she nuzzled the lobe with the tip of hernose.

He stared at his reflection in the ceiling mirrors. Arms and legsout straight atop a sea of white silk. Eyes staring vacantly at themselves,almost oblivious to her smooth, curvaceous form nestled against him, her longfingers tracing the thick ripples of muscle across his arms and chest. Driftinglower along the ridges of his abdomen, exploring the appendage below as itrecovered from their recent romp.

"I thought you needed to see me." She rose up on one armand supported her head of long, wild black hair in the palm of her hand."Or did you already get what you wanted?"

She bit her lip at his lack of response. She watched him for amoment. Then she pinched him.

"Hey." He frowned, brushing her hand away.

"It speaks."

He closed his eyes. "It's late."

"It was late when I got here. You better not be kicking meout. A walk of shame isn't in the cards for me tonight, sweetheart."

He groaned. "Your limo is in the alley, Ashland. No one willsee you."

She cursed him and rolled away onto her side, tugging the sheet."Go to sleep then, you bastard."

He glanced at her. It's probably already on the Link: NewCityPower Couple Merging Interests. Or some other witty innuendo. Didn't matterthat he left the side door open for her, that she never came in through ThePearl's front entrance. The media were viral and feral, as a rule. Their dronescould sneak anywhere, catch anything. Then broadcast it across the Link. Newsdidn't have to be verified. Seeing was believing.

He exhaled. I can't stay here.

"I thought you were tired," Ashland said, her voicemuffled by the pillow.

"It's been a crazy night."

Horton. Those monks. That kid.

"Then go to sleep, why don't you?"

"I was trying."

"Not with your wheels turning like that, you won't. You'llkeep us both awake." She flipped onto her back with a curse. "You'reobsessed."

"And you're not?"

She frowned up at the mirrored ceiling. "How is it even remotelysimilar?"

"We both want what we can't have."

"I'm not chasing phantoms. What I want is within my reach.But you..." She reached for him. "What you want is the world,my dear."

He closed his eyes as she caressed his lower abdomen with the palmof her hand.

I can't be trapped. I'll lose my mind.

He wasn't a spiritual man. Like many others of his generation, heconsidered himself post-religious. Yet his recent discussion with those monksregarding the human soul had awakened something within him—an awareness of lifethat existed beyond all which could be seen, bought, and sold. What would beleft, should his life be taken from him tonight? Would he simply cease toexist?

Joining the void that was, and is, and will be forevermore.

"Where are you?" she whispered again. She pressed herforehead against his ear and took his face in her hand. "Talk to me, Gavin."

"I've done...horrible things." He clenched his jaw. Whoare you? he asked the reflection above, stuck to the ceiling like afrothing demoniac from one of the Link's paranormal interactives. "I had a man killed tonight."

"Who was he?" She sounded curious.

Who am I? "An inventor. CyrusHorton."

She sighed, tracing the side of his face, his jaw, his pronouncedcheekbone with her fingertips. "Thought you'd put that sort of thingbehind you. The murder, the mayhem. The Gangster shtick."

"You said it yourself. I'm obsessed."

I won't let anyone stand in my way. And inthe end, I'll die like every other man who's become overwhelmed by his owndesires. And if the Wayists are right, if there is a Hell—

"You are." She squeezed him. "We both are. That'swhy we get along