Birthday Present

Diane’s husband spends most of his time on Mars, leaving Diane and her young lover, Paul, to share a secret life on Earth. But on her thirtieth birthday, Diane decides that secrecy is no longer enough. She promises Paul a future together—if he helps eliminate the one person standing in their way.

As a sleek racer lifts into the night, Paul crouches in the back with a wrench in his hand, torn between love, fear, and the knowledge that he is about to kill a man he respects. Diane’s calm instructions and unsettling determination keep him moving forward, even as doubts threaten to overwhelm him. Set against a stylish future of spaceways, Martian commerce, and jet-powered city travel, this tense science-fiction crime story explores obsession, betrayal, and the dangerous bargains people make for love.