32  I stayed under the vent until the late morning had become early afternoon.... 

31  I shook as I stared down into the alley. It was something close to twenty stories to the ground....  

29  Let’s say you have five minutes to get the hell out of your apartment, what do you grab?...   30  A brisk wind greeted us as we burst onto the roof....  

28  David drove us back to my place over Ivanova’s....  

26  You ever watch a Hideo Kurosawa film? There’s always that scene in every movie where a gang of ronin are doing something stupid when a rival group of samurai come across them....   27  It was dawn by the time we found Epstein’s....  

25  The Oyster Bed was incredible. A holographic clam, three stories tall above the entrance, opened and closed in a rhythm more biological than musical....  

24  At ten Dmitri came for me.... 

22  When I first joined British Telecom-Sprint, I was one of thousands working in vast cubicle mazes....  23  The engagement dinner flowed past me in a blur.... 

19  Shortly after dawn, I felt Nona slip into the bed next to me....  20  I woke about noon to pounding on the door....   21  At six o’clock, we were ready..... 

17  By the time I returned with Dmitri and company in tow to Little Russia, arrangements had already been made, and a new apartment awaited me....  18  I made my way to Giorgi’s and received my keycard....

16  The Red Line Express station was right where Nona said it would be.... 

14  The Red Square was packed. Three bartenders worked the bar, two waitresses slipped among the patrons. Georgian Industrial Fuzz blasted out of the speakers, blocking the sound of the City....  15  I walked through the crowds on Tbilisi Avenue, past Mazniasvili’s Pharmacy where bright neon announced, ‘Fully Licensed Pharmaker. SAN, Pfizer-Johnson, Roche-Michelin, Bayer. We fill all scripts.’...  

12  I exited Giorgi’s Market, with the feeling that everyone from the bent and ancient bebias to the sharp-nosed girl behind the counter were all staring at me. I felt a bull’s-eye on my back.... 13  Night was full upon the City. Foot traffic filled Tbilisi Avenue.... 

11  Nona told me of the loss of her mother to Euphria. The uncontrolled rage the drug caused in her mother.... 

10  After the fact, it was easy to see how stupid I was.... 

8  I dreamt of Janet. She regretted what she did to me all those years ago....  9  I woke to a sliver of light entering my room, a narrow sliver cast a dim glow, just enough to navigate by. My eyeball headache slapped me across my frontal lobes....

7  Leo helped me down the street. Bread vans, grocery trucks, a lone police cruiser drifted down the street with only the hum of their tires and the bang of loose doors to mark their passage.... 

6  I sat and drank with Leo until the night passed into the indistinct grey of pre-dawn.... 

3  That evening I called my building super. I told him I got new digs in Willow Point, a large promotion, and a huge need to show off my new stature....  4  I stood on the street before Giorgi’s Market....  5  The Red Square was a large bar by City standards....  

1 “Have you heard about the Star-X Line?” Frankie asked me as I slid into the booth across from him.... 2  The Mospa wraparound shades I wore blocked ninety percent of the light hitting my eyes. Welder’s goggles gave better protection, if my condition continued to progress, I was sure to need them soon....