These Mean Streets, Darkly (A Liquid Cool Prequel): Liquid Cool

By Austin Dragon

Metropolis wasn't a bad place, but it wasn't a good one either.

THESE MEAN STREETS, DARKLY is the prequel to the cyberpunk, detective series, LIQUID COOL.

It's a world of colossal skyscrapers. Hovercars fly above in the dark, rainy skies and gray people walk below on the grimy, hard streets in the "Neon Jungle." Uber-governments and megacorporations fight for control of the super-city, but so does crime.

An average woman, Carol—hardworking and decent in every way— loses her daughter to the psycho Red Rabbit. Can Police Central find the girl in time—alive? And is it really a random, senseless kidnapping in the fifty-million-plus supercity?

There are a million victims and perpetrators in this High-Tech, Low-Life World. This is one of those stories…before we meet our private eye (and unlikely hero), Cruz, in the debut novel, Liquid Cool.

These Mean Streets, Darkly: A Liquid Cool Prequel (Short Story)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Well-Tailored Books
• Release date: Aug 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9780990931560

Austin Dragon

Austin Dragon is the author of over 30 books in science fiction, fantasy, and classic horror. His works include the sci-fi noir detective LIQUID COOL series, the epic fantasy FABLED QUEST CHRONICLES, the international futuristic epic AFTER EDEN Series, the classic SLEEPY HOLLOW HORRORS, and new military sci-fi PLANET TAMERS series. He is a native New Yorker but has called Los Angeles, California home for more than twenty years. Words to describe him, in no particular order: U.S. Army, English teacher, one-time resident of Paris, movie buff, Fortune 500 corporate recruiter, renaissance man, futurist, and dreamer.

Book preview

FREE OFFER

THANKS FOR GETTING this book!

Enjoy Sci-Fi? Join My Exclusive VIP Readers' Club!

The AD Fiction Universe includes Sci-Fi and more. Your benefits includes free books, latest announcements, special offers and fun giveaways.You can unsubscribe at any time.

Sign up Today and get FOUR of my full-length novels FREE! Join HERE!

Now, put on your raincoat, grab your laser pistol, and let's get into the world of Liquid Cool!

Enjoy!

Copyright

Published by Well-Tailored Books, California

These Mean Streets, Darkly

(Liquid Cool Prequel)

978-0-9909315-6-0 (ebook)

http://www.austindragon.com

Copyright © 2015 by Austin Dragon

Book cover design by Leslie K.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Chapter 1

Beware the Rabbit Hole

METROPOLIS WAS MORE. It was an urban megacity that occupied a region nearly twice the size of almost all others in the nation, hence its power. Amateur wordsmiths in the media were always trying to make up new hyphenated words to describe it—omni-city, over-city, super-city.  Megacity seemed such an antiquated and ill-suited term. Metropolis was called a megacity way back when it was ten times smaller. All its buildings, both business and government, were larger and taller today. The downtown business district, with City Hall right smack in the middle, towered over the many ethnic neighborhoods, with the only exception being the exclusive, super-rich ones, of course. Everything spiraled out and away to create a concrete maze from the ground to the sky. There were no houses as in the past. Everyone lived as they worked, in mega-skyscrapers. There were no individual storefronts. Businesses were either part of a floor, owned the whole floor, or owned the entire business tower. The dark urban landscape was offset by flashing neon and video signs. Street lampposts hung over nearly every city corner, and lights liberally adorned the surfaces of buildings, usually in some kind of geometric design. If that wasn't enough visual madness, there was the glowing eye-wear of the people themselves. Bright lights scared away the gloom and doom of the dark and cloudy skies—nine out of ten city psychologists said so. This neon jungle was filled with fifty-million two-legged animals (humans) living, breathing, and dying beneath the ever-present rain.

Buildings dominated the horizontal space, but the public transportation thoroughfares sprawled out vertically, ultimately circling the entire circumference of the city. All private hovercar traffic was funneled into designated virtual lanes, one above another. The only vehicles that could fly where they pleased were the police, firemen, and garbage trucks. And then there were the megacorporate zeppelins floating through the air, flashing their advertisements for the hour or the day.

There was a system to life that everyone followed from the smallest guy, shuffling along to make a living to the god-like guy, consumed with power and fortune—where to work, where to live, where to play. Public schools, public transportation. Labor and delivery rooms to birth your babies, morgues for the meat (dead bodies), and finally, funeral parlors for processing to the crematorium. The cycle of life. That didn't mean that the gray people of the masses had to go about life in the rain without style. In their designer Goodwill wet-wear clothes and glowing shades, they found their own particular way to cope and survive in the drudgery of the world. Know your place, don't upset the order of things, and, though you'd never get Up-Top, make it to retirement to relax free-and-clear for your last decade or two of life. Most accepted this unsaid, universal contract. Most accepted that they were mere automatons in the cosmos, even those not bionic, either working for international or multinational megacorps, the archenemies of Big Brother, or working for uber-governments, the Man, the archenemy of Big, Bad Business. Metropolis wasn't a bad place, but it wasn't a good one

Reviews for These Mean Streets, Darkly (A Liquid Cool Prequel)

[chettsgenie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a prequel to a novel and while it was intriguing and cool there were a lot of characters to keep track of for such a short introduction. The story seemed interesting but it wasn't quite enough to hook me into wanting more. I think this will be best enjoyed by fans of dystopian stories.

[montzaleew · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

These Mean Streets, Darkly (Cyberpunk Short Story): A Liquid Cool Prequel by Austin Dragon is a very interesting prequel that left me wanting to know more and so I had to buy the first book. The dark but interesting city with the many shades of strange, and the odd characters, and the missing girl that is the focus. The whole feel is odd but made me what to know more so I picked up the book to see. I normally just read freebies unless it is something I just have to have but this was less than a buck so, I am going to check it out. I like checking out new authors, new to me anyway. It's called Liquid Cool.