Caro Cho and the Empire of Light (Short Story)

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Kitty Avelino works for Caro Cho, the billionaire tech genius known for her long, glass leg—or rather, the holographic tech that makes her prosthetic look as though it’s spun entirely from glass. In the haze of colour that makes up Virtue City, everything from the winking blues of starlets’ eyes to the waltzing billboards of Flicker Valley uses Caro Cho’s hologram tech. Caro’s latest project—a full-body holographic double of Virtue’s dying mayor for use during election season—represents the peak of her artistry, even if nobody can know about it.

Disaster strikes when the mayor’s hologram is stolen, and her face starts appearing everywhere: at digital poodle shows, on late-night talk shows, and worst of all, in places of ill repute. To combat this holographic heist, Kitty and Caro must track down the mischievous hologram thief, prevent the mayor’s secret from begin revealed, and reclaim Caro’s own tech from Virtue’s criminal underworld.

But in Virtue City, an urban jungle of endless light and layered illusions, not all that glitters is corporeal.

Short Story. 8k. Features a trans femme fatale and billionaire tech genius, her fiendishly loyal secretary, a holo-heist, and a whole lot of digital noir. Cover designed by Alex Assan. Originally published in Battling in All Her Finery (DefCon One).