An alarm blared in short, piercing tones. Nio sat stirring the lukewarm coffee and peering out the windows of the dim office for the stout Agent Quinn, who was no doubt rushing to her location. […]
Tag: indie
(Fiction) Bargains
The charges included assault of a minor (firing a gun at 17-year-old Guillermo Aquino); arson (of the house at 421 Asher St.); fraud (profiting under pretenses, namely, that Nio was a false expert); practicing medicine […]
(Fiction) Ruptures
Nio awoke in a box amid a tangle of limbs. Wide-eyed, she screamed and kicked and pushed them away—only to feel silk-smooth synthetic skin. A hairless sex doll stared serenely in the dark, inches from […]
(Fiction) Reversals
Del was right. Everywhere Nio might want to go was only five minutes away. Raffe’s Day and Night was a further ten outside town. The sky darkened completely on the drive. The last glow in […]
(Fiction) Appearances
The town looked as if it had been bombarded from space. A black tarp was draped over the gaping hole in a barbershop dating from the early 1900s, according to the sign. Someone had been […]
(Fiction) Rules
The technician at her feet looked up. “How does that feel?” Nio lifted her left foot to examine the wide bracelet around her ankle. Tungsten slivers had been woven into the Kevlar to prevent tampering. […]
(Fiction) Killing Machines
17:42:22 Number please? 17:42:24 I’d like to make a collect call to a solo register. 17:42:27 What’s the name? 17:42:28 Samizdat Zellner. 17:42:30 Pass phrase, please. 17:42:31 I’ll be back. [frantic typing] 17:42:35 Hold please. […]
(Fiction) Blackout!
When I wrote Episode Four of THE MINUS FACTION back in 2015, I wondered whether a breakdown in the normal order, like a blackout, would create suspense — whether readers, who seem to live most […]
(Fiction) The Shri-class Intelligences
Balram was right about one thing. Sonrisa was hesitant to leave the farmhouse. She doubted she’d be allowed to return. She leaned her bike deftly into a turn, right, then left, moving through the empty […]
(Fiction) Scratch ‘n Sniff
The neighborhood dated from the previous century. There was hardly a curb. Deep green lawns sat nearly level with the street. There were no fences. Each yard blended into the next. The Arneson house was […]
