biotech

It felt like an eternity before he gingerly lifted himself from the table and staggered backwards. Glass shards protruded from chest to groin. The guy looked like a bloody porcupine. A cute, tall bloody porcupine. I__ tall too. Five foot ten. But he had at least four inches on me, even with my thick-heeled boots.__hat__ your name?_ he slurred. While visions of reckless homicide charges danced in my head, I contemplated using an alias. Finally, I said my real name, __am.___ice to meet you, Sammers. I__ Jake,_ he said.

I recalled thinking...His freakishly tidy side could be a problem. To say that neatness was not my strong suit would be a crime against, well, the truth.

I saw them do it. Chip vandals. Right there on Commerce, behind the main road...They cut his head open. They know I watched.

I remember standing in the bush above this unbelievably wild river, and thinking this is as good as it gets. Exquisite birdsong, jagged peaks of the Alps beckoning like the spires of mystical cathedrals, the smell of moisture in the beech forest like an elixir. Nature in its raw, unpredictable state _ at an entirely different end of the spectrum from the confines of a test tube or comfort of a biotech lab.