Dressed in his finest, black chinos, Adami vest sans pockets, soft sharkskin leathers, his Ono-Sendai tucked under one arm, he approached the entrance to Gaslight. Named for the ancient gas-powered globes of light that hung overhead, spreading feeble saffron light against the oppressive darkness. The lights did little; the citizens of Gaslight rather liked it that way, resisting attempts to brighten their specialized section of San Diego.
Iron gray skies overhead. Burnt chrome. Bleak. Too many scents in the air to tell just exactly what he was smelling. Blueboy across the street, pulse-rod clenched in a scarred fist, too ready for action for Cort�s tastes. Election day a week off. Tension everywhere. Clusters of citizens whispering heatedly, breaking away at anyone�s approach. Radical reforms promised by the party leading in the polls; reforms he�d discovered were a false path to draw the attention from their real intention.
Hung a right and entered a long incline, cool inside the shaded overhang of steel and concrete epoxyed to similar structures, clapboard reinforced by corroded strands of twisted cable. Gaslight, two-level shanties stacked above, below and beside each other, hawking everything from lizard strips to stim-sticks. A couple of Succubus twitched by. Their see-thru dress and brightly painted nipples an advertisement to their services.
A rich aroma of stew before him. Jiggles. So named for her flesh, which happened to shake and rattle and roll whenever she moved. She�d lost over a hundred pounds, but had never exercised, hence the loose folds of flesh.
�Lo, Jiggles.� She grinned, gray haired and gap-toothed.
�What�s the word, Cort?�
�The word�s your stew is still the best in Gaslight, that�s all.�
�You got that right.� She raised her ladle, and the scents coming from her servo-pot must�ve triggered a circuit in his head, for he found himself reaching for one of his few remaining bills. She served him in a cloudy foam bowl, tossed in a plastic spoon and a slab of baked bread, sans the butter. He dug in, his actions speaking his approval. Still he wondered: why were there no dogs and cats in her sector?