The star had been below the horizon for some time when Amnon brought his transport to a stop in front of the termination center. He then reached behind him and presented a case to Katherine. “Put these on,” he said. Katherine popped the case open to find a drab government uniform. An unflattering coverall, she…
It had been a long day. Evan was out there, somewhere, and Katherine had no idea if he was alive or dead. She had no way to contact Amnon and alert him and she felt like a used washcloth. When Katherine wasn’t pacing the saferoom, she curled herself on the sofa and fall asleep form…
On and on Evan, led Lillian through the ducts of the termination center until he recognized the room from where he had entered them. He gently removed the vent cover and surveyed the room. Still no guards. The lack of surveillance in this prison was unnerving. Evan lowered himself to the floor and then guided…
It took the better part of the day for Evan Gold to approach the termination center. The cover of the night had been a help as he moved away from Katherine and the safe house. Having a vague notion of the facility’s direction facility from the planning of the botched decoy plan, Evan meticulously zigzagged…
In February of 2024, I was in California at a work event and ran into a long-distance friend who told me about a reading challenge he and a few other friends had started. It was set up like a bingo game, with each square indicating a kind of book to read: Work from the 1700s,…
The eastern sky transitioned from gray to blood red as Amnon Saxe tromped into the termination center. The attendants behind the front desk snapped to attention when they recognized Amnon’s rank. “Good morning, Director,” one of the attendants blurted. Amnon could tell he was unprepared for such a high-ranking visit, and he hoped to use…
Evan opened a window as soon as Amnon’s transport was no longer in view. He rested his hands on the sill and breathed in the night air. “Come away from the window,” Katherine said. Evan didn’t budge. “Come away from there and help me clean up. It looks like a tragedy in here.” It was…
The mood was grim as Drex and Katherine eventually entered the safe house. It had been a long, disappointing day, and Katherien’s feet were tired. Not only had the plan, the plan she had never wanted to be involved in, gone badly, but all her known paths of how she would get back to her…
Drex pulled Lillian’s transport into the termination center’s loading bay. It was a bland construction well beyond the city’s limits. The mammoth structures in the heart of the city had turned to a faint lavender outline to the west. Drex opened the back hatch and locked eyes with Katherine as if to tell her to…
Evan and Keetha strode across the plaza, looking everything like a modern couple on a leisurely morning stroll. It was an easy walk, as the place looked abandoned. Evan had been told that most every Merlain citizen would be preoccupied with the Department of Communication’s coverage of the trial that the city would seem desterted….
