THESE MEAN STREETS, DARKLY the prequel to the cyberpunk detective series, Liquid Cool.
It’s a world of colossal skyscrapers. Hovercars fly above in the dark, rainy skies and gray people walk below on the grimy, hard streets in the “Neon Jungle.” Uber-governments and megacorporations fight for control of the supercity, but so does crime.
An average woman, Carol—hardworking and decent in every way— loses her daughter to the psycho Red Rabbit. Can Police Central find the girl in time—alive? And is it really a random, senseless kidnapping in the fifty-million-plus city?
There are a million victims and perpetrators in this High-Tech, Low-Life World. This is one of those stories…before we meet our private eye (and unlikely hero), Cruz, in the debut novel, Liquid Cool!
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A Cyberpunk Thriller To Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat!
Liquid Cool is the action-packed (and funny), cyberpunk detective series.
How Much is One Life Worth?
In the sci-fi/cyberpunk detective series, author Austin Dragon shows why you never want to meet a cyborg in a dark alley. Liquid Cool is a cross between Blade Runner and the Maltese Falcon. There is plenty of gritty action, suspense, thrills, and even a few laughs.
It’s cyberpunk reimagined—an ever-rainy world of colossal skyscrapers, hovercars, flashy neon streets, and futuristic mechanization. Metropolis isn’t a bad place, but it isn’t a good one either. Uber-governments and megacorporations fight for control of the fifty-million-plus super-city, but so does crime.
We meet Cruz, our private eye (and unlikely hero), in this super-city with a million victims and perpetrators. Watch out for tech-tricksters, analog hustlers, and digital gangsters—psychos, samurais, and cyborgs aplenty. Visitors have a way of becoming permanent attractions.
Welcome to the high-tech, low-life world of Liquid Cool.
Get Your Copy of Liquid Cool Right Now.
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The Cyberpunk Detective Thriller Blade Gunner Keeps You on the Edge of Your Seat!
Liquid Cool is the action-packed (and funny), debut cyberpunk detective series.
Who is Blade Gunner?
In the next installment of the sci-fi/cyberpunk detective series, author Austin Dragon shows you when two forces of evil want to kill each other—get the hell out of the way! The Liquid Cool Series is the sci-fi classic, Blade Runner meets the Old Hollywood classic, Maltese Falcon. There is plenty of gritty action, suspense, thrills, and even a few laughs.
It’s the cyberpunk novel reimagined—an ever-rainy world of colossal skyscrapers, hover-cars, flashy neon streets, and futuristic mechanization. Metropolis isn’t a bad place, but it isn’t a good one either. Uber-governments and mega-corporations fight for control of the fifty-million-plus super-city, but so does crime.
Sinister secret megacorporations. Savage Cyborg cults. And the Blade Gunner. How does Cruz, our private eye (and unlikely hero), solve this case—let alone survive? Off-worlders will do anything to stop the unknown man called Blade Gunner—even to blow up a supercity from space! The seedy spousal surveillance case doesn’t look so bad after all, but it’s too late to go back. You haven’t read a cyberpunk novel like this.
Welcome to the high-tech, low-life world of Liquid Cool.
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The Cyberpunk Detective Series Continues to Thrill in NeuroDancer!
Liquid Cool is the action-packed (and funny), debut cyberpunk detective series.
Has Cruz met his supervillain match in NeuroDancer?
Liquid Cool is a Blade Runner meets the Maltese Falcon. In the next installment of the sci-fi/cyberpunk detective series, author Austin Dragon goes from less frenetic cyberpunk to a smoother, cyber-noir with our hero, Cruz, matching wits with the sultry NeuroDancer. There is always plenty of gritty action, suspense, thrills, and even a few laughs.
It’s the cyberpunk novel reimagined—an ever-rainy world of colossal skyscrapers, hover-cars, flashy neon streets, and futuristic mechanization. Metropolis isn’t a bad place, but it isn’t a good one either. Uber-governments and mega-corporations fight for control of the fifty-million-plus super-city, but so does crime.
“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful,” she said to him. He should have listened to his instincts when she strolled into his office to hire him. “I knew I wasn’t gonna touch this case with a 10-foot pole. It had danger written all over it, back and front.” But he did take the Case of the NeuroDancer. Is this the private eye story where the bad “guy” rides off into the sunset and the hero lies flat on his back waiting for the meat wagon to fly down in their hoverambulance.
Which is crazier, indeed: the criminal—or the client? Welcome to the high-tech, low-life world of Liquid Cool.
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The Cyberpunk Detective Series Goes to London!
But in The Electric Sheep Massacre does our detective come back? And, is that before or after someone tries to kill him in the world of virtual reality?!
Liquid Cool is the action-packed (and funny), debut cyberpunk detective series.
Liquid Cool is Blade Runner meets the Maltese Falcon. In the next installment of the sci-fi/cyberpunk detective series, author Austin Dragon takes our private detective from the wild, concrete wastelands outside the supercity Metropolis across the Great Ocean to London Prime (that’s what they call it in the future) to the most dangerous place in the world—virtual reality, where all of a sudden people are killing and dying.
It’s the cyberpunk novel reimagined—an ever-rainy world of colossal skyscrapers, hovercars, flashy neon streets, and futuristic mechanization. Metropolis isn’t a bad place, but it isn’t a good one either. Uber-governments and megacorporations fight for control of the fifty-million-plus supercity, but so does crime.
Welcome to the high-tech, low-life world of Liquid Cool.
Book links here:
PART I: SHOOTOUT ON SWEET STREET
Metropolis.
“Yo, yo, yo. Easy Chair Charlie! What’s the street talk, E.C.?” a voice called out.
If it were not for their glowing colored glasses, the three street kids would have been invisible through the drizzle of the night. Easy Chair Charlie stopped his musically-influenced stroll through the streets, pulling his headphones down around his neck. He wore his favorite embroidered, black slicker that flowed behind his tall, lanky frame. He also had the attached clear hood pulled over his bleached-white spiky hair and wore glowing, dark blue-black shades, but looked out from the top as if they were bifocals.
The boys looked like gorillas with the heads of old World War I fighter pilots. The water-resistant, faux-fur of their coats kept them toasty warm in the rain.
“Just a game of street jacks to pass the time, Easy,” answered the same boy. “Easy, what’s the street talk? You always know the low-down. If we get something, we’ll give you a cut like always.”
“Righteous, Easy. You always come through for us.”
“You always come through for me. The street looks out for self.”
“You know it, Easy.”
“Catch me later.”
“You got it, Easy,” they said in unison.
Downtown loved to tout the ethnic diversity that was the melting pot of Metropolis. It was true; everyone felt equally miserable, and that they were being melted into a pot—a big wet one. With so many millions in the supercity, there were more ethnicities, nationalities, and languages spoken here than any other place in the world.
The government’s “cigarette police” would stop by every month or two to pass out anti-smoking flyers, but were met with howling laughter and men stuffing the flyers—in front of the agents—into their butt cracks or in the front of their jock straps. However, today was one of those bad days, and Easy Chair Charlie entered the smoking room as the two meek college kid agents—paid government volunteers—were practically running out as smoking room customers threatened them with obscene gestures, jeers, and curses. The entire establishment was yelling at them to leave.
“Easy Chair Charlie!” a booming voice called out.
The men grinned at the words on the boxes.
“This, Easy…is what heaven smells like,” Fat Nat said.
“Easy is like no other.” Fat Nat lifted his Japanese whiskey glass. “Here’s to Easy and easy living in this wet, rainy, modern, miserable world.”
The men drank.
The street knew Easy for his take-it-to-the-bank betting tips, but few knew of his new, more lucrative, racket of the acquisition. Not a finder. They only told you where an item you desired was, but Easy found it and delivered it right to you. Acquisition experts, like him, were in high demand and insanely compensated. He could make more with the successful acquisition of an item in one year than his old gambling racket. His specialty was acquisition of items from Up-Top—where the wealthy and powerful of the planet lived. That’s where the astronomic cash was to be had.
“Something good?” Fat Nat asked.
The men smiled.
Easy Chair Charlie leaned back. “How indeed.” He took another draw from his cigar like a king. They all heard a low hum. Easy clenched his cigar gently between his teeth and said, “Excuse me, gentlemen, my pants are vibrating.”
“Something good must be callin’,” Fat Nat said to the men.
“Hyper, waiting on my drink order!” the waitress yelled out.
“Your slowing down, Hyper. Normally, you’d have my order before I started my sentence.”
A pulse-round of white light exploded her tray of drinks, sending glass and alcohol everywhere. Another blast hit Hyper in the shoulder, knocking him back, and ripped through the wall behind him. The waitress screamed as more rounds whizzed past, hitting the bar counter and the wall. She stood in place, yelling hysterically.
Everyone in the bar dived to the ground for cover.
Big G was about to throw his card on the table, when a pulse-round blasted through his hand and the cards. Fat Nat kicked the table away and pushed his friend to the ground from the chair. All the men were flat on the ground as the pulse-rounds ripped through the establishment. They could hear screams from patrons and things being blasted apart. One of the old-timers got to his feet and ran to the side entrance.
Another customer jumped up and ran to the main entrance, also in panic; others jumped up, following. A pulse-round ripped through the wall, knocking the left leg off one man’s body and grazing the head of another, sending both patrons to the ground in shock.
“Nat, where you goin’?”
“You want to get killed!” A round hit the wall above his head. “Hyper, you alive?”
“I’m good, boss. Now, I can get that bionic arm I always wanted—for free!”
“Who’s shooting my place to hell!” Fat Nat was red with anger and stood to his feet.
“Nat, get your ass to the ground before you get yourself shot in the head!” one of his card buddies hollered as he was crawling into the bar area on all fours.
Fat Nat yelled at the top of his lungs, “Nuke attack!”
Fat Nat stood to his feet with a deep frown on his face to survey the damage. He walked to the bar and peeked over the counter. There was the kid, Hyper, lying on the floor, missing an arm, in a puddle of blood, but smiling.
“Tab?” Fat Nat yelled.
“Yes, boss.”
“What’s your disposition?”
“I’m shot and lying on the ground.”
“Any major damage?”
“How would I know? You were the one who shot me!”
“Would you have preferred to be shot by me and alive or shot and dead by unknown bastard gunmen because you were too dumb to put face to floor?”
“Is that supposed to be a trick question, boss?”
Fat Nat continued his inspection of his place. His card-mates appeared and joined him.
“Big G will be needing a new hand.”
“Fat Nat, what are you going to do?”
The other men looked at him, and they could see Fat Nat seething as he walked through the establishment—damage, debris, and bodies everywhere.
“Make sure no one’s dead,” Fat Nat said to his friends.
“What will you be doing, Nat?”
“Nobody shoots up Joe Blows, my place of business, and gets away duty-free. I’ll be back.”
“Nobody shoots up Joe Blows!”
There was one loud, muffled metallic knock, then several more pounds from outside. Someone was knocking.
The men looked at each other.
“Sir, this is now an official crime scene—”
“Yeah, I should know,” Fat Nat interrupted. “I was one of the ones inside getting shot at, watching my employees and customers get shot up and my place of business get blasted to hell.”
“Wait here, sir.”
“Do you know this man?” the policeman asked.
Fat Nat stared at the body for a while. He looked up and said, “Never saw him before.”
“What about any of you gentlemen?” the policeman asked.
They all shook their heads.
“High-powered,” the policeman added. “He gave us quite the gun battle.”
Fat Nat shook his head. “And this is supposed to be a safe neighborhood. Well, I have lots of calls to make—hospital, insurance, and so on. I got to get my place of business made whole. Joe Blows has never been closed in sixty years, and we’re not about to start now. I should have the ambulance guys check me out, too.”
“Sir, we’ll have the shift detectives contact you tomorrow for a full statement,” the officer said.
The policemen watched them.
“People always know more than they’re saying, especially when they’re the victims.”
Fat Nat and the boys stopped in front of the police-tape line.
“Nat, that was Easy Chair Charlie,” one of the men whispered. “Easy Chair Charlie never touched a gun in his life! Those—”
“Shhh!” Fat Nat turned his head briefly.
Austin Dragon is author of the After Eden Series, including the After Eden: Tek-Fall mini-series, the classic Sleepy Hollow Horrors, and the cyberpunk detective series, Liquid Cool. He is a native New Yorker, but has called Los Angeles, California home for the last twenty years. Words to describe him, in no particular order: U.S. Army, English teacher, one-time resident of Paris, political junkie, movie buff, campaign manager and staffer of presidential and gubernatorial campaigns, Fortune 500 corporate recruiter, renaissance man, and dreamer.
He is currently working on new books and series in science fiction, fantasy, and classic horror!
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