Purity in Death
Prologue
The heat was murder. July flexed her sweaty muscles, eyed the goal, and
drop-kicked New York into the sweltering steambath of summer. Some managed to
escape, fleeing to their shore homes where they could sip cold drinks and bask
in ocean breezes while they did their business via telelink. Some loaded up on
supplies and hunkered down inside their air-cooled homes like tribes under
siege.
But most just had to live through it.
With humatures into the triple digits, and no end in sight, moods turned surly,
deodorants failed, and petty annoyances elbowed even the mildest of souls
toward violence.
Emergency medical centers were jammed with the wounded soldiers of summer,
2059. Many who, under normal conditions, wouldn't so much as jaywalk saw the
inside of police stations and holding tanks, forced to call lawyers to explain
why they had attempted to throttle a co-worker, or shove a complete stranger
under the wheels of a Rapid Cab.
Usually, once cooled off, they didn't know why but sat or stood, blank-faced
and baffled, like someone coming out of a trance.
But Louie K. Cogburn knew just what he was doing, why he ... read full excerpt from Purity in Death ebook
