Gina was an early bird. She was class. She got out of bed well before the competition, rested and ready, and she always showered before going out to work no matter how many hundreds of dollars it took to satisfy the Clean-O-Mat across the road. The rented coffins at Easy Hotel didn’t come with showers, but Gina didn’t mind. The Clean-O-Mat was cheaper.      The synthleather...

     The elevator didn’t work.      Gina struggled up the stairs in Bomber’s wake, picking her way through a maze of ancient beer bottles, discarded syringes and chunks of fallen plaster. Frayed electrical cables and cracked pipes created a constant hazard to unwary foreheads. Dirty white paint peeled off the walls in patches as big as a man. Flakes of it floated everywhere,...

     “The first thing we gotta do,” said Bomber as they crowded together in Jock’s machinery-packed room, “is figure out how they tracked us. Every bit of ID I got is fake, even the Feds would need at least a day to match my picture to a real address. No crime org could have that capability.”      Gina had been right about her identification of Jock. She...

     The morning smog smelled sweet and fresh. It was so unlike the sweltering afternoon smog that choked the life out of plants and people alike, or the tired evening smog that tasted of smoke and oil. Dewdrops glittered in the haze like crystals, cool wet fingers where they touched Gina’s skin. Looking up, she could almost see the sky.      She walked hand in hand with Bomber down...

     The blood was on her hands. It felt wet and sticky and it covered the upholstery of their stolen car, no matter how hard she pressed down on Jock’s limp body. Bomber swore under his breath at the wheel, pulling into a back lot at an abandoned corner shop. The car squealed to a halt and Bomber was out onto the pavement before the wheels even stopped turning.      The blood was...

     Gina blew smoke into the night outside the shop, waiting for a dark van of some type. The description was vague, Jock had just said it would be dark, with red flame decals down the side. She wasn’t quite sure why she was doing anything Jock told her to do, but at the moment she didn’t have any better ideas. The cigarette calmed her nerves as well. Still, she felt a little bit cagey about being back...