The Net Caster

 

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The Net Caster (Part One)

StarMo's are pretty much all the same, when you come down to it. But there was something about this one...

The Net Caster (Part Two)

Every single biological thing in the Universe leaves a trace.
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The Net Caster (Part Three)

Hamish Mansoorian had out- manoeuvred me and everyone else far more times than I could recall. But this...
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The Net Caster (Part Four)

Was Hamish Mansoorian alive or dead? And who had purchased his soul?
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The Net Caster (Part Five)

Under Cytherea's two suns, the talking taxi was taking me to a destination I knew nothing of.
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The Net Caster (Part Six)

I saw them then, the gold uniformed officers, marshalling the crowd, herding it down the boulevard towards me.
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The Net Caster (Part Seven)

I slid into the mob. Their eyes darted instantly to my face, scanning my forehad, seeking any trace of an Irrevocable Tattoo.
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The Net Caster (Part Eight)

I began to shake. The room rippled round me and the options of weeping or going to sleep vied for my attention. Was I a murderer, or just a thief?
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The Net Caster (Part Nine)

Finally, I could start casting a net for Hamish Mansoorian. But the results were impossible.
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The Net Caster (Part Ten)

The silver dust coated my skin and lips. A haz-bomb. What contaminants was I taking in through my lungs, my skin, the water I drank?
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The Net Caster (Part Eleven)

It hardly mattered in which direction I walked. It was only a matter of time. And there was a figure standing at the end of the street.
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The Net Caster (Part Twelve)

A table, a bottle of Aphrodite whisky, and two glasses. The scenario was familiar. Was this really down to dumb luck? '
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The Net Caster (Part Thirteen)

Faced with a professional assassin awaiting instructions to kill me, I poured myself several glasses of whisky.
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The Net Caster (Part Fourteen)

Perhaps I could just stay here in the four poster bed, lulled by lavender and flowers and the odd bottle of Aphrodite whisky.
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The Net Caster (Part Fifteen)

There was nothing soft about the woman sitting at the table. And how did she know my mother?
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The Net Caster (Part Sixteen)

'I've never been asked to look for something like that,' I said. 'No Net Caster has ever been asked to look for something like that.'
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The Net Caster (Part Seventeen)

'What?' I said. 'You set me up for murder so you can offer me a job?'
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The Net Caster (Part Eighteen)

Not all blight survivors survive intact. 'You kept me drugged for a week?'
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The Net Caster (Part Nineteen)

Living on my home world disturbs me. Spider webs disturb me though I've never seen a spider. We learn to live with disturbance, with always being disturbed
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The Net Caster (Part Twenty)

Face to face with the man I had been searching for, the man I grew up with, the man who betrayed me. The man who was either dead or had never existed.
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The Net Caster (Part Twenty-One)

'I've got nothing left to lose,' I told him. 'You haven't asked about your sister,' he said.
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The Net Caster (Part Twenty-Two)

I began to laugh from fatigue, shock, grief, and an overriding terror of being locked down here in this cellar with a group of disparate and apparently ill-matched Bios.
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The Net Caster (Part Twenty-Three)

I knew who she was. We all did. And every face was afraid.
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The Net Caster (Part Twenty-Four)

I looked at Hamish. Who had replaced the dodgy businessman, the charming, self-serving rogue I had known since childhood, with this stern creature who delivered lectures to the powerful?
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The Net Caster (Part Twenty-Five)

Even the members of the diaspora cannot agree on the best way to save it.

The Net Caster (Part Twenty-Six)

'It's government,' said Madam. 'They choose what they will and won't tell the governed. And in this case, they are completely and utterly right.'

The Net Caster (Part Twenty-Seven)

'You needed someone you could manipulate,' I said. 'You just had to be given the right job,' said Hamish.