The Hard Karma Shuffle
by Mike Nettleton, Carolyn J. Rose
Category: Fiction

Paladin -- that's his only name now -- is a gray-haired and pony-tailed love-child who has grown up and opted out of mainstream life for nearly 30 years. He's got no social security number, no driver's license, and has never paid a cent to the IRS. Now in his forties, Paladin takes care of his minimal needs through barter and payments under the table for delivering packages on his bicycle in the weather-cursed city of Portland. One ugly afternoon, Paladin is sent to deliver an envelope to a software company and then ordered by the sender to "undeliver" it. Upon his return, Paladin finds his client -- a good friend -- dead. What happens to this counterculture and innocent soul, and the envelope in his possession, is the stuff of the mystery.