They fought in the war. There’s four of them left now. The Chief has a job for them. Jobs from the Chief pay well. Those were the days, Justus says. He’s picking his teeth. Always had something in his teeth. Big tombstone teeth, and big ugly gaps between them. …

Shepherd looks down at the dreamworms writhing in his palm, fat with memories. Feels a coldness about them. A sickness. Off-white and squirming, useless forelegs flailing at the air, the stink of dead flesh on them. Feels the cold metal of the gun barrel against the back of his head. …

I hear him crying over the sound of the gulls. A hopeless keening, mingling with the cry and cackle of the birds overhead. This high on the mountain, sounds can be snatched away by the wind, but not here. It cuts clean through the cold air. I scramble up the…

I’m meeting a man in the snow. It’s cold. Which sounds a foolish thing to say, but there is nowhere else to begin. It is a hard, blunt cold. A weight pressing down on me. The rutted track underfoot has frozen into dark, pebble-flecked jags which threaten to turn my…

Always start with the weather, they say. It was a windy autumn day when they arrived! The leaves stirred restlessly in the air, etc and so on. Only I don’t remember the weather. …

They were getting closer, and Last didn’t care. He laughed in delight as he thundered down the street, barely missing a trader carrying an overflowing basket of olives. The man gave a squawk of alarm, but Last was already gone, running away from the consequences. …

My name is June. I am the sixth. January, February, March, and so on. June. Agent List says that you can track the changing priorities of Project Icarus (what a ghastly knowing irony) by the dispositions of each new Operative. January, the first, is barely human. A mute and a…

Magnus stared at the sky as he died. A white expanse down to the dirty grey-green sea. The waves hissed across the shingle. He was peaceful. Every so often his stomach clenched, and he sat up and deposited another mouthful of radiant, glowing vomit into the rockpool next to him…

It is first noon, and I am drunk. This place has two suns. The second is much bigger. First noon is the one you sit outside for. Second noon you find somewhere indoors or, ideally, underground. I am tempted to stay out and see what it’s like. …