Code Breakers: Beta Read Online Free PDF

Perhaps they were manufactured and handed out by The Family’s scientists.
    And the worst thing was that everyone seemed happy with it. The kids and the teacher smiled, relaxed. Even his security detail, excluding the ever-scowling Elaine of course, found time to flash a smile or wave to various citizens as they walked through the park, or came and went from the tower.
    Gerry looked away from the kids, tried to forget, and refocused on finding Petal.
    “What number am I in?” Gerry asked as they approached the foyer of the apartment building. A cheerful man in a black and white suit stood by the door. He opened it and tipped his hat for each resident who entered or exited.
    “It’s all on here,” Bran said, sending Gerry his credentials across his personal network. An icon flashed on his AO: Room 34, Floor 21.
    “Your ID is registered,” Malik said. “Just present your dermal implant to the head of security in the first instance so that they can tie that to the room’s security and then you’re good to go.”
    “Fine. I’ve got it. Thanks. You can all go now,” Gerry said. He stood, stared at the three security members, and waited.
    “We need to escort you in,” Elaine said. “Orders from above.”
    “I’m a big boy. I think I can work an elevator. Thank you for meeting me at the pad and walking me to the apartment building, but I’m sure you could be doing something more useful now.”
    Just get lost , Gerry thought. He didn’t want these drones following his every move.
    Bran and Malik stepped forward as if ushering him into the building, all the while trying their best not to look like threatening assholes. It failed. So City Earth security officers were all alike, after all. No surprise there really.
    “We insist,” Malik said. “The least we can do for a member of The Family.”
    It was clear to Gerry that they despised him, thought this was beneath their abilities. The doorman must have sensed the tension. His smile dropped and he observed the situation while removing his hands from behind his back.
    Gerry ran an ID scan. A second later the data came back: Presley Langford: Forty-seven years old. Combat protocol transcendent. Later design of the NearlyMen.
    Damn it. They had him locked down. He’d only been back a few minutes and already wished he were outside of the Dome again with Petal. At least then he felt free, until the torture and subsequent death.
    “Fine, show me to my apartment,” Gerry said reluctantly.
    Elaine smirked with triumph.

Chapter 3
    T wo weeks of pacing in the tight cell hadn’t done much for Petal’s physical fitness. Her muscles ached as she ran down the tunnel, all the time trying to stay balanced in the dark. The tunnel inclined with a low gradient, presumably all the way to the surface. A further few minutes into her journey and Petal breathed heavily, her lungs burned, no longer used to such exertion. Cramp gripped her calf muscles and her hamstrings felt like they would snap any minute, taut like stretched Nanothread.
    Spending those weeks in the darkness of her imprisonment had given her eyes time to adjust to the gloom. Even down here in the dark tunnel, its only light coming from small, sporadic amber semi-spheres embedded into the low ceiling, she managed to make out a few details: footsteps, grooves on the surface of the walls, and various power lines, probably going to a reserve system. Nothing indicated how long she would be stuck underground. It could go on for miles for all she knew.
    But despite that thought, and heeding Gabe’s urgency, she continued on, climbing the dark tunnel, hoping to finally be free. To find answers.
    So many questions birthed in her mind, wailed like hungry babies needing nourishment in a famine of answers. She had the slate in one hand. The display told her it was past 0900, June 12. She wanted to stop and analyse the data, read about Criborg and the set of coordinates, but the need to escape the darkness pushed her