Ellie Quin Book 3: Beneath the Neon Sky Read Online Free

to the sky. She was watching a stream of cargo tugs servicing a distant freighter hanging in low orbit.
    Edward Mason smiled.
    Yes, that’s my little girl. Following her programming - dreaming of escape.
    He knew that was what she must be thinking about. He knew that because he alone had engineered her very psyche; he had engineered that powerful nomadic desire into the very core of her personality. She was built to be that way. And for a moment, for a fleeting moment, he felt a shred of pity for his creation. For however long she lived, and it wouldn’t be for too long, she would probably never know true contentment, she would never feel at peace with her environment, she would always be pushed by that basic, artificially enhanced urge to press on to pastures new.
    You were designed that way, my dear. To want – to need - to travel. To spread your wings. No different really to the homing instinct of a pigeon. Or the up-stream desire of an Old Earth salmon to return to its breeding grounds. Programmed instinct.
    He noted her attention returned to the animated conversation going on around her. Ellie’s female friend looked to be a few years older, and the man, at least another ten years older. They seemed very close; a strong bond between the three of them.
    Very interesting. She has managed to make friends.
    Which was indeed curious. Mason had designed her to be introverted, shy, secretive; to find establishing relationships difficult. That was an important characteristic that had been built into her personality so that she would instinctively seek anonymity, obscurity - so that she would habitually avoid drawing attention to herself. That she would never have her instinct to travel compromised by a friendship; torn between moving on and leaving behind someone she’d grown attached to. He had assumed that, when he finally caught up with her, he would find her utterly alone, without any friends at all. But it seemed that, to some extent, her personality had reached a little beyond its programming.
Very interesting. An example of nurture over-riding nature perhaps?
    Perhaps her parents had managed to teach her how to reach out and find friends. It was so fascinating. He smiled as he acknowledged that there was no way for sure that one can totally predict how a human life can develop. Despite her DNA virtually being authored from scratch, designed in a petri-dish, it appeared as if the environment of her childhood had found a way to change her, just a little.
    What a fascinating creature you are, Ellie Quin.
    He wondered, though, whether these two friends of hers would present a problem. It was hard to tell just yet. They could be a help or prove to be a hindrance. The time was coming when Ellie would need to be guided off this world and out into the universe to do what she was designed to do. There was always the remote possibility that the Administration had caught wind of this, and that even now, their agents might be en route to Harpers Reach or, worse still, be here on the planet already and beginning to close in on her.
    He had been thorough in ensuring that nothing had been left behind him when he had faked his death in the upper stratosphere of Pacifica, and then disappeared. The extensive notes he had made on her in his personal journal had disappeared with him. All that had remained were his digital notes, locked away in that non-descript directory, and even then, he had been careful never -
never
- to reveal the name or whereabouts of his precious child.
    He was certain the Administration had no conceivable idea of the fate that awaited them.
    After so many years of patience, decades of patience, things were finally beginning to happen. The end of it all was in sight, and he was here to ensure that
his
little girl spread her wings and flew away with the minimum of fuss.
    With, or without, her friends.

CHAPTER 5
    Ellie awoke with a start. The soft chiming of the alarm beside her pillow had featured somehow in her