The Peripheral

Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton asks Flynne to take over a job he's supposed to do. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. Work a perimeter around the image of a tower building; little buglike things turn up, he's supposed to get in their way, edge them back. What she sees, though, isn't what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.

Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton asks Flynne to take over a job he's supposed to do. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. Work a perimeter around the image of a tower building; little buglike things turn up, he's supposed to get in their way, edge them back. What she sees, though, isn't what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.