Alice counted to five, then pushed herself onto her knees and stood. Snow formed a lumpen grid over the broken ground, its geometric pattern created by bird capture nets strung between the buildings. She pulled a stim-stick from her suit, jammed the glass pipe in her mouth, and inhaled its bitter powder. A second later her heart thrashed as if wired to a fusion reactor and her vision cleared. That’s good shit, she thought, but her body was rubbery and remote. There was a payback coming when this wore off, a tsunami lurking over the horizon.