by Rick Wilber
CHAPTER ONE
APRIL 23, 2041
WATCHERS
Eddie Bennett wasn’t Eddie Bennett in this timeline but, instead, a professor named Elizabeth Stern, who was getting in a brisk dawn walk for some much-needed exercise before teaching her graduate seminar, “Applications for Personal Finance,” at Niagara University. The campus was north of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. A private university with a few thousand undergrads and half again as many grad students, NU was perfect cover for someone smart enough to hold a doctorate and publish some papers and get her tenure even as she lived the double life the real job required of her. READ MORE
by Will McIntosh
The frosted glass plate was semi-opaque, meant to create a sense of mystery for the client as he set eyes on his potential bride for the first time. As the plate slid down, revealing Helen Carson’s stiff blue-white skin, her frosted eyelashes, my training immediately kicked, even though it was a face I knew well. A bit too round (clients preferred classic beauties to cherubic cuties), eyes on the small side. The red hair and freckles weren’t necessarily a flaw, but they shifted her into a fetish category—either clients specifically wanted a ginger, or they didn’t. READ MORE