Cirrus@Austlit

'Sometime in the near future, software codemonkey Eddie is down to his last few dollars. Unemployed and living on, or rather under, the streets, he’s also facing "repossession" of his organs to cover student debts.

'Now he’s been offered a job, a job that requires he risk his sanity taking an hallucinogen that’ll give him a chance at subverting a Machine Intelligence for a few critical minutes.

'It’s called The Deathline, and he has to meet The Dealer to acquire it.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the near future, homeless, unemployed software codemonkey Eddie has found himself up to his eyeballs in student debt, in a city whose promise has become a prison now that his bank account has run dry.

'His only chance to repay the people who’ll take organs in lieu of payment, is to obtain a neural-enhancing drug known as "The Deathline". With it, he will have the edge necessary to subvert a machine intelligence for an anonymous, paying client.

'In this issue, Eddie meets with The Dealer, who will reveal the awful truth about the origins of The Line. He also provides some important safety advice, which Eddie promptly ignores.

'Finally, Eddie is ready to commence his run, but as he begins, he discovers to his horror that the series of disasters which lead to his current predicament may not have been as random as he believed, and that perhaps, you can never go home again.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the near future, homeless, unemployed software codemonkey Eddie has taken a job disrupting a machine intelligence, as a last ditch option to avoid having his organs brutally repossessed over his student debts.

'To get the edge he needed, Eddie turned to a powerful neuro-enhancing hallucinogenic – The Deathline, so named for its tendency to kill users. It gave him the edge he needed, but in his triumph, he forgot to heed the warnings about visiting one’s own memory.

'Now, he finds himself paralysed in what looks like a hospital room. He can do nothing, as the machine intelligence who ruined his life to this point, offers a terrible deal. Life in a prison of stone, or of his own flesh – a cure in return for his cooperation.

'That is, until someone, and a great many somethings, open the door.

'Meanwhile, Eddie’s ex-partner is testing her suspicions that her fiancé, their former employer, has been less than truthful about the circumstances surrounding Eddie’s firing. She isn’t liking what she finds.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the near future, homeless, unemployed, former Machine Intelligence researcher Eddie finds himself at the mercy of a shady group of people who’ve kidnapped, or rescued him, from an even more shady government detention facility.

'He’s also paralysed as a result of an overdose of a neuro-enhancing hallucinogen, has just found out he’s responsible for multiple deaths due to his latest piece of contract work, and that all the troubles in his life are due to a somewhat megalomaniacal Machine Intelligence, which has taken a personal interest in him.

'All in all, not a great day.

'Meanwhile, his former partner has just tortured her fiancé into unconsciousness, or worse, over a lie. Now, she’s preparing to revisit her old life, diving back into the dangerous world of The Deathline.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.