Light returned to the neighborhood outside the alley, and he could hear generators beneath the street rumbling back to life.

       At the back of the alley, a rusted fire escape, bolted into the brick, served as an emergency exit for a single window. The Major moved to climb the ladder, then realized that something was off. Things in the narrow cleft between the abandoned buildings had shifted. The dumpster, for one, had been moved. Garbage lay strewn about where previously there was none, and... there was a smell. It didn’t take him long to source the disruption and the odor. Curled up on the pavement was a body. Rain, in a steady pour from the roof, doused the inert figure.

       What have we here?

       With a boot, the Majo...

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