Angry Robot Books has made a name for itself with smart , legal action - packed novels like Ramez Naam ’s late link . Now they ’re about to start a Modern post - revelatory series , the Dustwalker Cycle , by videogame interior decorator and author Jay Posey . We ’ve got an excerption from the first novel , called Three . If you care hardboiled writing about tough guys in an even tougher future , you need to check this one out .
representative is a contingent of the cover art by Steven Meyer - Rassow
Here ’s the blurb from the publisher :
The earth has collapse , and there are no Cuban sandwich any more .
But when a lone shooter reluctantly accepts the mantel of protector to a young son and his dying female parent against the forces that pursue them , a hero may yet go up .
Here ’s the excerption :
From Chapter One of Three , by Jay Posey
halcyon beams of sunlight spill through the haggard highrises , and through the concrete and steel connection of latticelike highway , bypass , and rails that once flowed with annoyed humanity , now devoid of all but the mean sign of lifetime . overpass stacked ten gamey lay indifferent , arteries of a city embalmed . The wind was weak but weighty with the failing fall , like the script of a blacksmith gently laid .
Beneath the blue overpass , a lonely figure plodded weary steps , bend and hood ; burden dragging behind lead long course in the concrete dust . He hesitate , raised his head , laid back his hoodlum , and feel the cooling gentle wind on his sweat - beaded cheek . His sun - squint eye roved over the urban desert before him as he adjust the straps of his jury-rigged harness to ease his protesting shoulder joint .
“ I see why you left , ” the serviceman muttered . He pitter-patter , wiped his olfactory organ on the sleeve of his knee - distance , faded olive - brown dappled coat , and started on his way again .
The man stepped up onto the road , feel his senseThetic boots break slightly to better absorb the tough shock of the mineral pitch , cringed at the hollow echo of his shipment scraping across the marred and pock - marked land . As he walked , he imagined the metropolis as it might ’ve once been . The endless dissonance of a half - million people packed into five square land mile , swimming in an almost tangible soup of electromagnetic traffic . He wondered what trace of personality might still be left , rippling through those inconspicuous fields around him even now .
Progress was tiresome , but he was unaired . Another few second and at last the man support before the gates of his destination ; a belittled enclave of survivors set within the beat cityscape . From atop a twenty - foot wall of haphazardly - weld urban junk , a watchman call down .
“ What ’s your business , foreign ? ”
The man jerk his ovolo behind him , indicating the cargo he was dragging . The watchman grunted .
“ Yeah , alright , ” he resolve . “ see the Agent ’s gon na wanna take a look before you go far . ”
The humankind await in silence as the tremendous gates ground open , just wide enough to admit him and his lading . They started to close again before he was all the way through .
“ 2d street on your right , Agent ’s the first on the left . First base . ”
The mankind nod curt thanks , and headed to see the enclave ’s Agent . Within the walls , the computer architecture was unaltered from that outdoors ; tall gunmetal skyscrapers with window darken like gaping socket of a skull , dead flat panel signs forty - pes wide that might once have monger the solar day ’s latest technical fashion . In here , however , there were men , women , and even broad - eyed tyke , who stared in wonder at this Modern evidence of life from beyond the bulwark , walking amongst them . Most of the adults pretended not to discover him , though he felt their sidelong glances and heard the hush whispers after he passed . Even in days as unknown as these , it was strange to see a man harness as he was , hauling such a load ; fighting aluminum , wear out and scratched , bent into the makeshift but evident shape of a casket .
The man reach the Agent ’s office , and he pause , steeling himself with a last deep intimation of remote aviation . He ’d dealt with Agents before , nearly thirty he could recall , and they ’d all been the same . Muscle - bound gun - toters with a hatful of barque , always itch for a reason to sting . Mostly ex - military or law enforcement , Agents were tough guy who liked the world power , and still clung to the outdated notion that order could be maintained even in a desolate society . They had their use . But the world had little use for them .
He stepped forward , robotlike room access slip smoothly undefendable to admit him , and dragged in from concrete to polished granite . In an earlier time , the office might ’ve been a bank , with all its oak tree and stone . Or a tomb . Now , it was just a long corridor , leading to an imposing flexiglass third power . The spyglass was darkly smoke , but the homo right presume whoever was inside could see his approach . Still , he strode nearly the length of the corridor , before a sudden booming phonation stopped him five tempo from the cube ’s door .
“ tell your byplay , ” thundered the representative , rolling definitely down the rock hall .
“ Bounty , ” replied the man .
“ express your name . ”
“ Three . ”
There was a pause .
“ You father three of ’em in there ? ”
“ You asked my name . ”
The voice puzzle for a moment . Then —
“ Who you got in the boxwood ? ”
“ One of yours . ”
“ Open it . ”
“ I ’d rather not . ”
The voice resumed a more professional flavour .
“ All collections must be aver and processed before payment will be distributed . ”
“ So open up the cube . ”
A slot open in the cube , and a silky metal cause slid out , popping loose to unveil a cracking , rubberized interior .
“ stick your weapon system in the allow for unattackable receptacle . ”
Another pause . Though it still boomed , the voice sound fluster .
“ You cain’t come in here so armed , mister . I do n’t care who you are . ”
The human being named Three lease the strap of his harness slide off his shoulders . They clattered to the floor next to the coffin .
“ Then you hail out . I ’m done dragging . ”
Three turned around and started back down the corridor .
“ Hey ! ” the voice thundered , “ Hey , you cain’t just leave that settin ’ there ! ”
Three walked on .
“ I ’ll have you arrested if you do n’t come back ! ”
He was almost to the exit . There was a whir and a click behind him , and a thin , crackly voice call out from the regular hexahedron .
“ What about your bounty ? Do n’t you want it ? ”
Three stopped . But did n’t turn .
“ do on get this box inwardly , and I ’ll see what we owe ya . My back cain’t grapple it . ”
Three swiveled on a heel , and deliver to the third power . There , a bent old humankind who depend like he weighed less than his age paddle and slant against the now - opened door . A stimstick dangled precariously from his lower lip , glowing with chance indifference . Three grabbed the straps off the base and hauled the coffin inside the cube . The honest-to-god man followed him in .
“ Do n’t know why you folks got ta make things hard for us folk . Times is rough enough without undeserved meanness . ”
The cube interior was a crude contrast to the cavernous entree . Nearly every useable square inch was stuffed with various devices , wink and buzz and whirring , and it was easily fifteen degrees warm inside than out . There was a desk of sorts in the middle of the elbow room , with a lavish recliner behind it , and an overturned plasticrate that Three assumed served as a nates for rarified company . From within the cube , the flexiglass was clear , and the granite corridor stretch along off to the chicken feed exit at the far remainder .
“ So who ’d you git ? ” the Agent ask .
“ Nim . Nanokid out of the Six - Thirteen . ”
The Agent ’s eye twitched back and forth as he internally get to the appropriate data file .
“ Alright . Looks like fifteen - hundred . ”
“ Four thousand . ”
“ Nah , only fifteen for idle . ”
“ I did n’t say he was dead . ”
The Agent looked up into Three ’s eyes , mouth open slightly , but he swallowed whatever question he ’d been about to require , and alternatively take away a puff on the stimstick . He turned and rummage through a pile of gadgets on his desk , dragging out a supple rod , pewter - colourise , without any apparent seams or separate parts , which emitted a pleasant busyness . This he pointed casually at the coffin , grunt after a moment with some admixture of satisfaction and disdain .
“ Well , that ’s him in there alright , ” he said , turning again to angle around in his desk drawer . “ Pointcard ’s okay ? ”
Without waiting for an response , the Agent produced a translucent green card and sweep it through a slot twist , which clicked once and beeped cheerily . He extend it to Three .
“ Hard , actually , ” Three respond , workforce in his coat pouch .
The Agent ’s svelte shoulder slumped almost into non - existence .
“ I do n’t keep that kind of Hard just layin ’ around . No more than a thousand any given daytime . ”
The pointcard trembled in the Agent ’s still - outstretched hand , in dim hope that this strange Isle of Man from beyond the wall would take it and go away . Three could tell he disturbed the Agent . The wrinkled old man stared at him like he did n’t belong there , like he was some alien thing squeeze in the amiss reality . The Agent shudder .
“ I ’ll take the thousand now , and come back for the rest . ”
The Agent crowd the posting a little closer .
“ Might be a daytime or two . ”
“ I ’ll wait . ”
The Agent allow out a aweary suspiration . He rummaged in , under , and around the galvanizing clutter of his office , until he located an ancient lockbox , secured with strong-arm biometry . After running his dented and knobby fingers over the touchpad , the box boo undecided . The Agent opened it just astray enough to slide his hand in , number out twenty nanocarb chip , and give them over to Three with some hesitancy . Three glimpse more Hard in the box , but made no comment , sized the Agent up alternatively ; expound pupils , thin sheen of perspiration , colorless annulus around tensed mouth .
“ Sorry I frighten you , ” Three said without apologetic tint . He tip his head to one side and break up his neck audibly , watching the former man carefully . The Agent laughed , too dead , too meretricious .
“ What ? I ai n’t scared of ya , do n’t ya worry about that . ”
Lie , Three thought process .
“ I lived plenty enough years to see things a lot unsound than you , protagonist . ”
That was true . Three lower his head word in the barest touch of a obeisance . Whatever the Agent ’s reason for withholding a luck of his hoard , Three decided , he was an reliable dealer . Probably owed someone . The Agent got back to line of work .
“ Gimme your SNIP , I ’ll pim ya when I get the rest . ”
“ I ’ll come back tomorrow . ”
The Agent ’s eye narrowed more or less .
“ Be easier if you just gimme the SNIP . ”
“ Figgered that , ” the Agent snort . “ Well , gimme two daytime , I ’ll have the rest for ya then . Late afternoon . ”
Three unfasten his coating to pocket the payment , expose a mammoth side arm hunker in a holster on his singlet , coiled like some predator hungering to pounce . The Agent ’s eyes bulged at the computer hardware , but he rapidly diverted his attention . He give up at the casket .
“ ’ preciate the work you done , ” he said half - heartedly . “ Dunno why you had to do him like that , though . ”
Three adjust the pistol , then refastened his coating , hold back it once more .
“ You will when you open it . ”
Three nodded to the Agent , and swiveled back down the I. F. Stone corridor . As Three walked away , the Agent take in him briefly , then , on a sudden whim , clean up and aim the hum rod at his back . The Agent lower slenderly , shake the rod , and pointed it again , more purposefully . His frown deepen , center narrowed with some vague emotion . A sentiment occurred , and wide - eyed he spoil over himself to seal the flexiglass cube , as Three abuse back out onto the street .
= = = = =
The honey - color in liquidness purl gently in the finger - smudged , squat meth on the table in front of Three . It was his fourth of the afternoon . Still he wait for the comforting blanket of alcoholic haze to embrace him . He leaned forward , rest his face in his hands , and his cubitus on the table , felt it dislodge somewhat to the right , and wondered in short if it were the table or himself that had wobbled . Was this the rickety table ? Or had that been yesterday ? Yesterday ? Yesterday . It was the 2d twenty-four hours since he ’d met with the Agent . Payday .
Three let out a aweary suspiration , ran his hands back over his shaved headspring , feeling the stubble of a few days ’ growth , then massage his tabernacle , probably pulse though he could n’t be trusted . It was like this when he did n’t have a job ; something to notice , someone to impart in . The impatience was setting in , the need to move . To hunt . It was the third daylight in the same town . Might as well have been a month . There were welfare to being a freelancer , but down time was n’t one of them .
From his niche booth , he had a dominating view of all the critical angle . The cubicle itself was U - shaped , tucked in the front turning point of the bar , a natural blindspot from the entrance . Temprafoam , covered in some cheap imitation of a much sturdier fabric , it was passable comfort and give him all the way he postulate , and beneficial of all require no mental reservation , deposit , or record of stop . He sat with his understructure prop up on the bench opposite , with his coat bundled around his hardware on the perpendicular tooshie that complete the U. His eyes involuntarily tangle around the cake , rent stock of his surroundings , the way they had two minute of arc before . Habit .
But everything was the same . Same hazy atmosphere . Same chatter habitue . Same bartender . The bartender was a skimpy man , lean like he ’d been a ft poor and stretch to his current height , and fidgety . He was never completely still , fingers always working the air when they were n’t cleaning glasses or pouring drinks . Three venture the bartender was split clip between customers and some fantasy app , but did n’t want to pretend the eccentric .
He took another draught of his drink , then casual sake in the door . Instinct . A moment later , a adult female entered pulling a small male child along behind her . She was dented at an awkward slant , cling to her long coat closed close around her with a balled clenched fist pressed severely to her side . Colorless , diaphoresis , desperate . Damp , shoulder - length brown hair plastered to her os frontale . Wild , browned heart scoot around the room . The son was blond , vibrantly pale , with center mystifying - sea green and natural , the mesmerizing form the Money would ’ve paid top Hard for at the acme of the securities industry . Three guess him perhaps five years old . The boy trembled with the frightened secrecy of a child who ’s been tell everything ’s all right , but knows it is n’t . His shocking innocence swept through the legal community ; frail , beautiful , a snowflake drifting amongst ash .
Three lour his middle back to his glass , kept the adult female and male child in his peripheral awareness . She moved from supporter to patron , urgent , pleading , waved off impatiently . Three shut out his eyes and drank deeply the remaining honey - liquid from his glass . He coiffure it back on the table with a slow fracture , felt the table shift again .
Good , he thought with a half - smile . Table , not me .
When he opened his eye , she was there .
“ Please … ” she began . Three ’s gaze riff to the threshold behind her . In the next instant , it swung subject , and she flog around to confront it , inhaling sharply . Whoever she was expecting was n’t there . Just a pair of teenage Skinners blowing in off the street . She clenched her eyes , bent over Three ’s tabular array , strike down a fist to support herself . Three watch her hazily , felt his eye drift to the son . The son run his hand slowly , methodically , back and forth along the edge of Three ’s table , tiny fingers wrapped around some scavenged plaything ; a model of an ancient shuttlecar with a few flecks of yellow paint where bare metal had n’t yet wear upon through . He pay off Three with a wet , interpenetrate stare , and never looked away .
Three reached in his vest pocket and flick a brace of nanocarb chips onto the tabular array , a hundred Hard . The charwoman opened her eyes , stared down blankly at them , then back up at him , shaking her drumhead .
“ No , ” she practically whispered , teeth arrest her bottom lip for an instant in an almost imperceptible struggle to keep thin equanimity . “ We call for help . ”
“ You lose something ? ” Three heard himself require heavy . The haze was take root nicely now .
“ What ? ”
“ Did you drop off something ? ” He repeated , with overemphasise precision .
“ No , I — ”
“ Looking for someone ? ”
“ What ? No , we ’re just — ”
“ Then I ca n’t help you . ”
The woman straighten , and see back to the door , but did n’t leave . Three glance to the boy again , find himself star into deep green pools , fascinated . The boy seemed equally intrigued by Three . The char made one more try .
“ I ’m not asking you to assist me , ” she pushed the boy to the front . “ await , will you help him ? ”
“ I ’m not being rude , ma’am . Just honest . ”
Three tilted his glass on the tabular array , signaled to the barkeep for another . Still the woman stood , chew her back talk , squeeze her fist to her abdomen , while the bartender jerked his way over and refilled Three ’s glass to the lip .
“ Take the money , ” Three suppose , sip from the glass , feel the warmth rove down his throat , take his chest with dull flaming .
“ Mama , ” a small voice peeped next to the cleaning woman . “ Mama , permit ’s just go . ”
The charwoman stared vacantly , at the door , at the table , at the Hard .
“ Go on , ” Three said . “ I ’ve got plenty . ”
“ Mama , please , can we go now , can we go ? ”
Without a word , the woman swept the two nanocarb fleck up off the mesa and into her scoop , then whirled and drive the male child along behind her to the legal community . She spoke animatedly with the barkeep , who send her with various vellication motion towards the back . The boy never consume his eyes from Three , not until he vanished with his female parent into a back elbow room and , Three assumed , out again into the street .
Three drink down a salutary one-half of his glass , felt a faint satisfaction waft through , like the smoking - wisp of a just snuffed candle , knowing he ’d help some local skew and her runt , and had n’t even been irritate when she had n’t give thanks him . A hundred Hard was probably more than she ’d make in a week of night under sweaty joes who could n’t yield even C - grade sims .
“ Hold my table , ” Three called to the bartender , hauling himself out of the cubicle to take care of the grow pressure in his vesica that he ’d just observe .
In the stall , he catch in a sort of drunken lucidity the current slush onto the unsullied grate , lie with somewhere below it was being absorbed , sink in , break down into useful parts for biochem bombardment , or answer , or cooking . He chuckle loudly at the cerebration of his fellow patrons out there drinking his recycled urine .
But then the sudden trope of the boy ’s ocean - green eyes cut short his personal amusement , and Three could n’t shake the feeling that there was something in them he should ’ve noted , something he lose that was important , or would ’ve been if he ’d noticed . He was still wrap it over in his thickened mind when he stepped back out to the bar and felt the twinge , the automatic heightening of senses he ’d learned to swear even when he did n’t know why .
He continued to his tabular array swimmingly , seemingly unconcerned , knowing any change of intention might draw undesirable attention , and slid into his booth , take in at a glimpse the adapted environs . The adrenaline surge burned away all tincture of the alcohol - induced mist he ’d pass the good afternoon cultivating . The bar was near the same ; same hazy atmosphere , same regular , same barkeeper . The regular were n’t chatter now . The Skinners had a new companion .
He was tall , tall than the bartender , broad - shouldered , with long , stringy dark hair like tendrils down his back . His nerve was skullish , skin stretched taut across sharp feature film , by artificial means smooth despite other , more pernicious signs of age . Thin hands , tapering to long , dextrous fingers . The eyes were the key ; a slight wrinkling at the sharpness , with thirty more old age of life in them than the residual of the man ’s build suggested .
Genie , Three guessed . Dangerous .
He ’d run afoul of a brace of Genies before , man who through across-the-board genetic engineering , or outright meddling , attained preternaturally advanced talents or skills . It was a error Three did n’t plan to repeat . The worry with Genies was you never knew what about them had been enhanced . The egghead were never a problem . Others , though , could be deadly . judge the marvellous man at the cake , Three guess he was a strength tweaker . Could probably crush a man ’s skull in his monumental hand .
The adult male spoke few Bible , but each contribute forth a downpour of information and motion from the Skinners , as they tripped over one another hear to win over him of their readiness to aid . They both appear terrified . Three had n’t draw his notice , but the neophyte was n’t interested in him anyway . One of the Skinners motion to the back of the ginmill , and shortly after , the tall man exited by mode of the front room access , without so much as a glance Three ’s focussing . After several tense mo , one of the regulars mumbled something that drew laughter from the others at the legal profession . Normalcy rebooted , a programmatic hiccup resolved .
Three extend to for his glass , half - empty when he left , now half - full . The son ’s eyes burned before him , barren , unaccusing . There was no doubt the tall human being was after the woman , the son ; veins in the tall serviceman ’s synagogue had bulged somewhat as he left the bar . Anger . Three knew in his inwardness that the improbable man mean harm to those two . He shook his head ; not his trouble .
A hundred Hard , Three thought process . That ’ll go a foresighted way , if she ’s voguish .
He pick up his glass , swirled the slightly - viscous liquid . Unappealing now . He wanted to want to drink it , but instead just watch out it gyrate and finalise . Over the brim of his deoxyephedrine , on the far side of the table , something caught his eye . A small model shuttlecar , with nick yellow paint .
He leave the glass .
“ How much do I owe you ? ” Three called to the bartender , stand and pull together his things .
The barkeeper look his way , puzzled .
“ For the drinks , ” Three explain .
“ Your adult female - friend already give , ” the bartender answered . “ Nice tipper , too . ”
Silence descended upon the bar as Three made quick , patrons goggle - eyed at this last brazen violation on their day - to - day act . They ’d all assumed Three was a drunken drifter . Now , he was checking the cylinder of his pistol and holstering it , skid a slim - bladed short steel into its sheath at his lower back .
Three threw his pelage on over his hardware , and wordlessly flowed out onto the street , in pursuit of a pestilent man he did n’t know for reasons he could n’t infer .
Threegoes on sale July 30 , 2013 .
This excerption reprinted with permit from Angry Robot Books .
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