London, 2069

Nissa pushed her way through the crowded tube platform and toward the green-tiled tunnel leading to the stairs, wishing the ancient escalators still worked. Not that much in London had worked since the Anti-Monarchy riots in 2040, the year of her birth. The riots where her parents had died doing nothing more than trying to make their way home to her and her grandmother.

Nana had been gone for twelve years now, leaving Nissa alone in the flat in Camden Town, next to what was left of Regent's Park. But she was used to it. Being on her own since the age of seventeen had taught her to be independent, street-smart, and savvy about the rough world she lived in. She knew how to walk through a dark neighborhood without getting mugged, knew what to do about it if it did happen. She didn't put up with shit from anyone. She went where she liked, slept with whomever she liked, then kicked him out the next day without looking back. She was used to being entirely without connections, and that was exactly how she wanted things.

And being on her own meant there was no one to miss her if things went the way she hoped they would tonight.

Using her elbows and the occasional stomp of her stiletto-heeled boots, she finally got to the stairs, her legs pumping as she moved toward the small halo of dark sky above. Careful to keep a watchful eye on the others around her, she gripped her stunstick in her hand in case anyone tried anything. These dense crowds were even more dangerous than walking down a dark, empty street alone. Not that she would usually be so foolish, armed or not.

She was always armed.

Smacking away a groping hand just as she reached...