TimeRiders: City of Shadows (Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Monday’s fading sunset left the sky a deep blue and there existed
     that momentary gasp of air, that fleeting pause between the last of Manhattan’s
     office dwellers vacating the city and the emergence of the first eager beavers of New
     York’s nightlife.
    Times Square was still busy, but mostly with
     ambling tourists coming home to their 5th Avenue hotels after a day’s sightseeing.
     Bob, SpongeBubba and the freshly birthed girl clone – yet to be called
     ‘Becks’: they were still debating whether to consider her a new personality
     entirely, that was still up for discussion – were left to watch over the SuperChief and
     the archway. The rest of them headed across to Manhattan, one last time in TimesSquare. They found a Mexican-themed place that looked out across the
     winking lights and animated billboards, the news ticker around the Hershey store, the
     stop-start intersections and sluggish convoys of yellow cabs, gaggles of goggle-eyed
     tourists, and the last city suit walking home with a gym bag slung over one
     shoulder.
    It was quiet in the restaurant. They ordered
     from the waitress quickly and then were left alone to the privacy of their faux dark
     wood and red-velvet-cushioned booth to talk.
    ‘So …’ Maddy clasped her
     hands like a host desperate to get her party started. ‘Here we are,
     then.’
    ‘Aye,’ said Liam, ‘the
     first proper chance I’ve had to sit down, rest and eat in ages.’
    Maddy nodded. It seemed an eternity ago that
     they’d been cornered by guards in Caligula’s palace. Since then they’d
     been running, hiding, scavenging. She realized she hadn’t eaten properly in days,
     the best part of a week in fact. That went some way towards explaining her ordering the
     triple bean and beef mega-burrito.
    ‘You’re running,’ said
     Foster. ‘I can understand that … but have any of you thought where
     to?’
    ‘No.’ Maddy tucked hair behind
     her ear. ‘Not yet.’
    ‘Well now, to be sure, we want to know
     who sent those support units after us.’ Liam looked at Sal for support.She nodded. Clearly the most pressing question hovering between them
     all.
    Maddy shook her head. ‘Somebody from
     the future. Obviously. I don’t know.’
    ‘Did you say the male units looked
     just like our Bob?’ asked Foster.
    ‘Yup. Like his evil twin or
     something.’
    ‘These are military clones
     you’re talking about,’ said Rashim.
    She nodded. ‘Military use,
     yeah.’
    ‘Then if they looked
exactly
like your Bob, they’d be from the same or a similar birth batch. The cloning
     process develops genetic-copy errors if you reproduce from the same DNA indefinitely. So
     the batches have relatively small print runs. Twenty maybe thirty units per base DNA
     pattern.’ Rashim stroked the fine tip of his nose. ‘I recall that the
     military contractors producing clone units back in the 2050s were constantly having to
     start over with new candidate genomes to engineer.’
    Liam chuckled. The others looked at him and
     his face quickly straightened. ‘
Back in the 2050s?
’ He grinned.
     ‘I mean, doesn’t that sound odd? That’s the future for all of us, so
     it is. The
far
future for me!’ He shrugged; no one seemed particularly
     tickled by that. ‘Just sounded a bit funny, that’s all.’
    ‘When does your clone unit come
     from?’ said Rashim. ‘Do you know his precise inception date?’
    ‘Bob?’ Maddy struggled to
     remember. ‘Uh, I think it’s the 2050s …’
    ‘2054, if I recall correctly,’
     said Foster.
    ‘Then your enemy, whoever sent those
     killer units, must come from the same time.’ Rashim folded his arms.
     ‘That’s an assumption, of course.’
    Liam shuffled uncomfortably. ‘But
     who’s our enemy? Who’ve we gone and annoyed?’
    ‘What?’ Maddy laughed.
     ‘Who’s our enemy? You mean apart from some secretive association of Templar
     Knights? A government-backed top-secret project called Exodus, that group