Hammered

By Elizabeth Bear
First Published: 2004
“She was engineered for combat—in a world that is running out of time.”

Once Jenny Casey was somebody’s daughter. Once she was somebody’s enemy. Now Jenny Casey, a retired master corporal in the Canadian special forces, is just scrapping by on the mean streets of Hartford, Connecticut. Her world is populated by drug dealers, petty criminals, and the occasional cop, but this marginal existence provides exactly what she needs: a sanctuary that’s beyond the of sight of the government that used and discarded her. Running with a crime lord so she can save a life or two, Jenny is a month shy of fifty years old and her artificially reconstructed body has started to unravel. The is doesn’t seem all that far away. That is, until a government scientist decides Jenny is the perfect subject for a high-stakes project.

Suddenly Jenny Casey is a pawn in a furious battle, waged in the corridors of the Internet, on the streets of battered cities, and in the complex wirings of her half-man-made nervous system. And she needs to gain control of the game before a brave new future spins completely out of control.