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The drones whirred near the top of the tunnel. Four props kept them in the air. Black and gray bodies housed instruments and sensors. Cameras protruded from their fronts like insect eyes.

1 12
2020-02-18

His lips brushed her jaw as she reached back with her right hand and laced her fingers into his hair. With her left, she moved his hand to where she wanted him to touch her.

Billie crooned from the stereo. “Mama may have, papa may have . . .”

0 8
2020-02-13

He’d kill for some fentanyl or morphine, but he had to be able to function. So he settled for hydrocodon. He threw back a couple of pills, dressed in pajama pants and a tee shirt, and staggered toward the door.

“I’m coming,” he groaned.

4 25
2020-02-11

“Welcome to Artemis,” the hologram said. “Here aspiring parents can seek help with every possible form of parenthood they would like––from natural gestation in one of our next-generation artificial wombs to cloning and genetic modification.”

0 2
2020-02-05

He put his hand on the back of her head and pressed his lips to hers. It was desperate. Pleading. Almost frantic. Like the first time he had kissed her.

Val drew away and slapped him. The sound—crack—echoed off the cinder block walls.

0 11
2020-02-04

The combination of Tolbert’s raptor-like glare, flushed red skin, and walrus mustache reminded Bowen of his father, who had been a neurosurgeon with the bedside manner of an IRS auditor.

2 12
2020-02-04

A woman’s voice out in the hall shouted, “No, no please!” But a burst of gunfire silenced her. Jessica bit her lower lip to stifle a scream. She’d always hated guns. Now she wished that she had one.

2 9
2020-02-02

“I’m risking everything to show this to you,” said the woman. “My job, maybe my freedom.” Beads of sweat glistened on her skin even though it wasn’t hot. “Maybe my life. Now shut up and follow me.”

4 18
2020-01-29

Next came a young woman with a buzz cut and the pale skin of someone who saw very little sunlight. She wore a wry smile—the smile of someone who knows things.

2 23
2020-01-28

Val put her foot on the man’s bloody, mangled knee and pressed. He howled and writhed, trying to pull his leg from under her.

“Stop it, Mom!” Braden cried. Even after being called a “freak,” he wouldn’t let go of his compassion.

2 15
2020-01-27

The idea that someone might hear them through the open windows that night had made their lovemaking all the more delicious. How young she had been then, even after her experiences fighting in the war.

3 9
2020-01-21

Val fell to her knees next to Braden and put her hands on his face.

They’re going to call me a terrorist, she thought. If they can, they’ll kill me and say that I kidnapped him. That he was a victim of my fanaticism.

3 18
2020-01-17