Time Riders

CHAPTER 91

2001, New York

A couple of hours later, after Liam had given a more detailed account of his timein the past, he was fast asleep on one of the cots. His snoring seemed to reverberate throughthe arch even more noisily than the generator had.

Foster worked over at the computer desk. Having scrubbed Bob’s neural processor cleanof brain tissue and blood, he connected it up to the computer system and began downloading theentire content of its hard drive.

‘Bob’s AI is in there amongst that,’ he said, nodding towards the loadingbar slowly creeping across the screen.

‘That’s a lot of data uploading there,’ said Maddy.

‘Well, he was away for nearly six months; all the time, his eyes and ears recordingeverything that was going on.’

‘So, what’s the deal with Bob? Is his AI intact?’

Foster shrugged. ‘I’m no computer expert. So I don’t know how it works. Butthe code that makes up Bob’s AI will merge with the computer system’s.’ Hetapped the keyboard. ‘You’ll be able to communicate with him in there.’

‘Right. Six months of learning… I guess that AI code’s a lot smarter thanthe idiot that plopped out of the birthing tube.’

Foster chuckled. ‘Oh yes.’

She looked at him. ‘How are we going to grow ourselves anothersupport unit? Those tubes are smashed, the gunk they were growing in has all gone off-’

He raised a hand. ‘There’s going to be a lot of work to do to get this fieldoffice online again.’

‘I’ll help you with that… You look tired.’ If she was being honest,she would have said he looked ready to keel over and die.

‘New clone embryos and growing solution. The generator needs replacing. The walls fixedup. You need to replenish our supplies,’ he added.

‘A new generator. That’s going to cost money.’

‘Fine,’ said Foster, ‘just go find a hardware store and buyanother.’

‘We’ve got enough money?’

‘As much as you’ll ever need. It’s in a bank account.’

‘Cool. Do we get a debit card with that or something?’

He turned to her. ‘That’s one of many things I’m going to need to gothrough with you… before…’ His voice trailed off.

‘Before what?’

Foster looked uncomfortable. ‘Before I leave.’

‘Leave? Leave! You can’t leave us! Neither of us know what the heck we’redoing just yet. Jesus, I… I certainly don’t — ’

‘You did fine.’ Foster smiled. ‘You did just fine. I’d say right nowthere’s no team better trained to do this than you. You survived the ordeal.You’ll be able to cope with pretty much anything else this job has to throw at you. Ofthat I’m sure.’

‘Team? There’s no team. There’s just me andLiam now.’ She cast a glance at the bank of monitors in front of her and the upload bar,now inching past the halfway mark. ‘Oh… and a computer system that’s verysoon going to start insisting we call it Bob.’

It was then they heard the soft scrape of feet behind them. They turnedround to see Sal standing in the middle of the archway, a shopping bag in one hand, lookingcuriously down at the small crater of scooped-out concrete in the floor.

‘So what happened here? This place is a real mess,’ she said, shaking her headdisapprovingly. ‘I go out for a couple of hours to get some milk and bagels forbreakfast and come back and it’s like someone’s been drilling holes in the walloutside… and someone dropped a bowling ball on the floor here.’

‘Sal?’ Maddy’s jaw dropped. ‘Sal!’

A dark eyebrow arched quizzically. ‘Uh… yeah, and?’

‘You’re alive!’ Maddy leaped up from the desk and swept the confused girlinto her arms. ‘Oh my God, you’re alive! You’re alive!’

Foster could see Sal’s bewildered face over Maddy’s shaking shoulder.

‘Uh… is someone going to tell me what’s been going on while I wasout?’