She had popped for a case of Panda’s instant meals, the more expensive brand not made from OmniSoy, and a small white teddy bear. With one parcel under each arm, she approached the police line around The Ruin. Because she had zoom in her purse, she had half a mind to invis...
Father had made a thing he called an enchilada, and set it on a plate in front of her. She sniffed at the food as if studying found treasure. When Karina arrived and everyone had a plate, Althea snatched up the hot, gooey thing with both hands and bit down on the most amazing taste she had ever k...
Harsh light chased away the darkness of the hallway as the scent of her mother’s house changed to the floral presence of cleaning compound. One of the nannies had come over to rouse her after opening the blinds. She squinted at the room, and for an instant thought she had pulled her little self o...
Hovering next to the NavMap console, the image of a sixty-foot long truck rotated to face her and then to profile―an animation it had been doing for the past fifteen minutes. Text nearby gave details about the maximum load capacity, turning radius, armor thickness, and top speed of the vehicle. T...
The windshield had enough grime to offer a decent bit of cover from the people milling around in front of the hotel three buildings down the street. They circled a nonfunctioning fountain in the center of a courtyard of black tiles with bronze lines inlaid in diamond patterns around it. Across th...
From the moment she started the truck, fear she’d look up and see flashing lights in her mirror whitened her knuckles on the wheel and sucked all the moisture out of her mouth. She barely drove forty-five miles per hour and kept her gaze on the ground to the left, worried to death she’d miss the ...