Titan (Old Ironsides Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

exposure to the brilliant sunlight and moisture trapped within the city.
    A faint drizzle had been falling since they’d arrested the youth after his clash with Nathan, drenching the streets with the exhaust of human lungs. Many of the city’s inhabitants spent a lot of their time fighting off infections such as the common cold, which thrived in these humid and closely packed environs. That a cure for the cold hadn’t been found in the four hundred years since Nathan’s birth was no surprise to him even though humanity had found within its capabilities the technology to travel to the stars.
    Nathan walked into the precinct and caught an elevator up to the second floor, where Betty was already processing the youth. Filled with miserable looking wretches yanked from the streets of the city for all manner of crimes, processing was also known as the “cattle–yard”. Nathan eased his way through the raucous of complaining suspects, all manacled to the walls where they sat as they gesticulated and shouted, and headed past the main desk to a security door that led into the station proper. He entered his access code and then walked through the door, which dematerialized before him as it detected his ID chip and cleared him, despite what he carried in a black bag. He’d been required to call that in before arriving, in order not to set off every alarm in the precinct.
    ‘Hey, Jay! Look who we have here!’
    Lieutenant Emilio Vasquez looked up from his workstation at Nathan, Lieutenant Jay Allen also casting a serene gaze in his direction as he grinned from ear to ear.
    ‘Well whaddya know, Emilio? We’re honored!’
    Both of the officers were attached to the precinct’s Anti–Drug Unit. Jay was a career officer who had joined the corps from high school in New Chicago, while Vasquez was a former Marine who had switched to law enforcement for the increased chance of picking up hot dates due to his uniform. The pair could not have been more different and duly were inseparable partners with five long years’ service behind them in the unit.
    ‘How y’doing fellas?’ Nathan asked as he tossed his jacket over the back of a chair while the two detectives stood to greet him.
    ‘How’s life in traffic?’ Vasqeuz grinned as he shook Nathan’s hand. ‘Not too rough for you? Nice uniform. I used to have one of those, about ten years ago.’
    ‘Or was it twelve?’ Allen chimed in. ‘Long time ago, and all that. We’ve moved forward since.’
    Nathan didn’t miss the jibes. ‘It’s temporary, okay? Lieutenant Foxx says it’s to help me learn the city’s ropes.’
    ‘Sure,’ Vasquez intoned. ‘Five years’ service on the streets is the average, so I heard.’
    ‘Could go as high as ten, given that you’re four hundred years late to the party,’ Allen added.
    ‘Where’s Kaylin?’ Nathan asked. ‘I’ve got something for her.’
    ‘I bet you have,’ Vasquez said as he jabbed Nathan’s chest with one finger. ‘She’s outta your league bro’, too hot to handle.’
    ‘Speak for yourself,’ Nathan said. ‘And speaking of too hot to handle, what do you make of this?’
    Nathan opened the black sack and dumped the military grade weapon he’d taken from their perp’ onto Vasquez’s desk. The former Marine stared down at the weapon and then shot Nathan a serious glance.
    ‘Bro’, where’d you lay your hands on this?’
    ‘North Quarter, during a robbery. One cop down but he’ll be okay.’
    Vasquez pulled on latex gloves before he picked up the weapon and examined it.
    ‘This is military grade,’ he said, ‘Darkwater MM–15, automatic, thirty round cartridge, good for a hundred meter shot. You said you found this on the streets?’
    ‘Got first–hand experience of it from the wrong end of the barrel,’ Nathan said as he gestured over his shoulder to the jacket hanging off the back of Lieutenant Foxx’s chair. Vasquez and Allen looked at it and saw the large burn mark in the center.
    ‘Man,