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 has to go out, but there´s a job he´s supposed to do--a job Flynne didn´t know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. The job seems to be simple: 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. That´s all there is to it. He´s offering Flynne a good price to take over for him. What she sees, though, isn´t what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder...