Digi City: New Eden Series:Rexall Cycle, #1.5

By Jarrett Rush

Jensen Miller has a new daughter, a beautiful wife and a relatively stable life in unstable New Eden. The fallen government and increasing number of data addicts have the city crumbling. When a group of terrorists sets off a series of explosions at the docks, the population comes together to rebuild. But a rising power, Roma Corp, uses the distraction as an opportunity to strengthen its ever-tightening grip on society.

Relying on Miller, the company's top security agent, Roma starts hunting down those it fears may be working against the company. For Miller, that hunt starts in Digi City, the place most of New Eden's data addicts go to get their fix.

What Miller finds there will change how he sees Roma, these data addicts, and even himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jarrett Rush
• Release date: Apr 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386280859

Book preview

ONE : TALLBOY

Miller climbed Tallboy’s stairs, his arm pulled to his nose. He was doing what he could to shield himself from the stench that hung in the stairwells. Too many freaks using the first place they could find to relieve themselves.

The smell was one of a million reasons Miller hated working hothouses and was the exact reason he’d been cursing Cruz’s name a dozen times a night for the last month.

Miller stepped out onto the tenth floor, the area of Tallboy given to the older addicts. These were the guys who’d been on the wire for a long time. They weren’t plugging in for thrills; they were plugging in to forget, soldiers who’d seen things and done things that they couldn’t let go of.

These were the guys who Miller would be laying beside if he gave into the draw of digital.

Wires fell in bunches from the ceiling, bundles thick as tree trunks breaking up what was mostly open space. Guys were along the walls, most of them plugged in and passed out. Miller quickly studied faces as he passed. His port itched, and he pushed the desire to plug in farther down.

Digital sunk its claws fast and deep. Miller didn’t want to get sucked in. That’s why he’d taught himself to push the desire farther and farther down. So far down now that it was coming out of his toes, seeping out from under the nails and gathering in his shoes.

The faces were blending together. Miller stopped and closed his eyes. He pictured the face in the photo that Cruz had shown him. The high forehead. The short hair. The pronounced nose and deep-set eyes.

Miller walked the walls again, and that’s when he saw him. His guy was the loner, plugged in to a wire far from everyone else. He was laid out on the floor, his head resting on an outstretched arm. Passed out. Mouth fallen open.

Miller went over and sat beside him, leaning against the wall. He watched for a minute then put a finger under the man’s nose, just to check. Then he waited.

He watched the junkies slowly wake. Watched them try to stand then stumble to unsteady feet like a calf just from the womb. They’d grab for the wall. They’d fall to a knee. They’d find their footing then slowly shuffle from the room, likely collapsing somewhere in the stairwell on the way down. They’d wet themselves at some point before mustering the energy and stability to make it to the bottom. It’d be hours before they’d be back to themselves.

Miller grabbed one of the loose wires that had spilled out of the bundle in front of him. He licked his thumb and ran it across the end and felt the jolt of digital dance up his arm. He flinched instinctively then licked the palm of his hand. He rubbed the arm of the man next to him and left a smear of spit across his bicep. He grabbed a handful of wires from the floor and jammed them into the man’s arm. His body tensed, and his eyes shot open.

Miller smiled. Wakey wakey, he said.

The man scrambled backward and up to his feet before taking a couple of clumsy steps and falling to the floor, his usual reflexes and coordination covered in a thick and heavy blanket of digital.

Miller got up and offered the man a hand. He swatted it weakly away.

Come on, Miller said. Just take it. I’m only offering to help you to your feet.

The man tried to form words, but nothing came.

Miller pulled the man’s hands behind his back. He held the guy’s wrists together and then secured them with a zip tie he’d kept in his back pocket.

They took slow steps toward the stairs and the exit.

I didn’t think you guys existed anymore. It wasn’t loud, but it was intelligible.

Didn’t think we existed? Miller asked. Who do you think I am?

The man shuffled his feet through the door to the stairs then stopped