Samu Ara runs the Outer Ring bounty circuit alone — yellow-gold blonde, high ponytail, red tie, skintight charcoal bodysuit — and she has never once walked off a job second. Tonight's mark is a dermal-patch fence called Vesper Sao, who is waiting for her. The collar snaps on, the amber lens runs thirty seconds of induction, and Samu's body stops taking orders from Samu: strip, mount, obey. She is programmed to ride a chrome sybian with a dildo bolted to it, naked except for the collar tightening its grip hour by hour, while a buyer's runner logs her as a lot. She keeps one thing the trance can't touch — a bargain made in her last clear second, and sixteen hours of clock she fully intends to survive.
