TimeRiders: City of Shadows (Book 6) by Alex Scarrow Page A
Authors: Alex Scarrow
virus … pretty much wiped us all out in the
space of a few weeks. We made a nice tidy job of pretty much erasing ourselves from
history.’
‘Shadd-yah,’ whispered Sal after
a while. ‘This is depressing! You’re great fun to hang out with, you know
that, don’t you?’
He shrugged. ‘You
did
ask
what the future’s going to be like.’
‘I didn’t,’ she replied.
‘It was Liam who asked.’
‘Aye, and now I wish I bleedin’
well hadn’t.’
Chapter 13
12 September 2001, Washington DC
Cooper was up and at work despite the time.
The Department was as much his home as the single-bed studio apartment he kept in Queens
Chapel, DC. Thirty-nine, with no family, no partner, no children, not even a pet, one
might say this twilight office with empty desks, a watercooler that hadn’t been
switched on in years and a fading poster of Jane Fonda was his life.
Custodian of secrets so secret even
Presidents aren’t privy to them. That’s me.
Perhaps not the world’s most exciting
job. But an important one nonetheless.
Last night he’d stayed here, slept in
the cot he kept in his personal office.
His PC was on and he was streaming MSNBC,
watching it as his coffee and breakfast bagel cooled enough to have without burning the
roof of his mouth. It was quite early in the morning; outside in the world, the sky was
still dark. On the monitor he watched a news camera pan across rescue workers picking
through the smouldering rubble of the World Trade Center. Brilliantly stark floodlights
illuminated the enormous mound of rubble and twisted spars of metal. Dots of neon-orange
light-reflective jackets decorated the mounds of dust and concrete; dozens of emergency
workers picked through the remains of the towers in the vain hope of finding
survivors.
The phone rang.
Cooper looked at it. The phones down here
never rang. Well, rarely anyway.
He picked it up. ‘Cooper.’
‘Coop, it’s Damon.’
Damon Grohl. A friend from the FBI Academy
many years ago. Friends still. Christmas cards were exchanged every year and every now
and then they shared a beer, if that counted.
‘Damon!’ Cooper’s mood
lifted. ‘Well, been a while! How are you, ol’ buddy?’
‘Fine. Fine. The Bureau down this way
is chasing around like a headless chicken with what went down yesterday.’
Headless chicken? Damon was probably right
about that. FBI heads were going to start rolling pretty soon over this. Letting
something like this slip through their fingers.
‘I can imagine. Not much
fun.’
‘Look, Coop, something’s come up
that, uh … might be, well, your thing, if you get my meaning.’
Cooper’s curiosity was piqued.
‘My thing?’
‘We’ve got a double cop killing
over in Brooklyn. Happened after midnight this morning.’
‘How’s that anything to do with
me? The Department?’ A thought occurred to him. ‘Is this linked to
yesterday …?’
‘Twin Towers? Who knows? Might be.
We’re looking at pretty much anything that moves right now.’
‘You said this cop killing might be my
sort of thing?’ A little careless of him, to be honest, talking so candidly like
this over the phone.
‘Your phone line is encrypted,
right?’
‘Yes. But keep what you say
foggy
… if you know what I mean.’
‘Foggy? Sure. So, Coop, are you still
doing that whole X Files thing down in Washington?’
‘You know I can’t comment on
that.’
He heard Damon draw a breath.
‘Damon? What the hell is
it?’
‘I think I’ve got something you
might want to take a look at, if you can get up here quickly.’
Chapter 14
7.01 a.m., 12 September 2001, outside
Branford, Connecticut
Maddy was knocking on the adjoining motel
room wall for him to get up. Liam yawned and cracked open eyes to look at the digital
clock on his bedside ledge. Just gone seven.
He thumped the wall back. ‘All right!
Jay-zus! I’m getting up, so I
space of a few weeks. We made a nice tidy job of pretty much erasing ourselves from
history.’
‘Shadd-yah,’ whispered Sal after
a while. ‘This is depressing! You’re great fun to hang out with, you know
that, don’t you?’
He shrugged. ‘You
did
ask
what the future’s going to be like.’
‘I didn’t,’ she replied.
‘It was Liam who asked.’
‘Aye, and now I wish I bleedin’
well hadn’t.’
Chapter 13
12 September 2001, Washington DC
Cooper was up and at work despite the time.
The Department was as much his home as the single-bed studio apartment he kept in Queens
Chapel, DC. Thirty-nine, with no family, no partner, no children, not even a pet, one
might say this twilight office with empty desks, a watercooler that hadn’t been
switched on in years and a fading poster of Jane Fonda was his life.
Custodian of secrets so secret even
Presidents aren’t privy to them. That’s me.
Perhaps not the world’s most exciting
job. But an important one nonetheless.
Last night he’d stayed here, slept in
the cot he kept in his personal office.
His PC was on and he was streaming MSNBC,
watching it as his coffee and breakfast bagel cooled enough to have without burning the
roof of his mouth. It was quite early in the morning; outside in the world, the sky was
still dark. On the monitor he watched a news camera pan across rescue workers picking
through the smouldering rubble of the World Trade Center. Brilliantly stark floodlights
illuminated the enormous mound of rubble and twisted spars of metal. Dots of neon-orange
light-reflective jackets decorated the mounds of dust and concrete; dozens of emergency
workers picked through the remains of the towers in the vain hope of finding
survivors.
The phone rang.
Cooper looked at it. The phones down here
never rang. Well, rarely anyway.
He picked it up. ‘Cooper.’
‘Coop, it’s Damon.’
Damon Grohl. A friend from the FBI Academy
many years ago. Friends still. Christmas cards were exchanged every year and every now
and then they shared a beer, if that counted.
‘Damon!’ Cooper’s mood
lifted. ‘Well, been a while! How are you, ol’ buddy?’
‘Fine. Fine. The Bureau down this way
is chasing around like a headless chicken with what went down yesterday.’
Headless chicken? Damon was probably right
about that. FBI heads were going to start rolling pretty soon over this. Letting
something like this slip through their fingers.
‘I can imagine. Not much
fun.’
‘Look, Coop, something’s come up
that, uh … might be, well, your thing, if you get my meaning.’
Cooper’s curiosity was piqued.
‘My thing?’
‘We’ve got a double cop killing
over in Brooklyn. Happened after midnight this morning.’
‘How’s that anything to do with
me? The Department?’ A thought occurred to him. ‘Is this linked to
yesterday …?’
‘Twin Towers? Who knows? Might be.
We’re looking at pretty much anything that moves right now.’
‘You said this cop killing might be my
sort of thing?’ A little careless of him, to be honest, talking so candidly like
this over the phone.
‘Your phone line is encrypted,
right?’
‘Yes. But keep what you say
foggy
… if you know what I mean.’
‘Foggy? Sure. So, Coop, are you still
doing that whole X Files thing down in Washington?’
‘You know I can’t comment on
that.’
He heard Damon draw a breath.
‘Damon? What the hell is
it?’
‘I think I’ve got something you
might want to take a look at, if you can get up here quickly.’
Chapter 14
7.01 a.m., 12 September 2001, outside
Branford, Connecticut
Maddy was knocking on the adjoining motel
room wall for him to get up. Liam yawned and cracked open eyes to look at the digital
clock on his bedside ledge. Just gone seven.
He thumped the wall back. ‘All right!
Jay-zus! I’m getting up, so I