The Duty Free Shop

What does it mean to be free? Is it even possible when you're born saddled with a debt it takes a lifetime to pay? This is the question the citizens of Sky City, the techno-metropolis floating over the ruins of Tokyo, must not ask too loudly or too often. And if freedom itself is out of reach, is there a suitable alternative? For some, like the blue suits of Sky Corp levying their perpetual tax, the answer is power — however illusory, however incomplete. Better to be one of the oppressors than one of the oppressed. For others, the answer is lying flat. Opting out entirely, at the cost of everything society has to offer. For ones such as these, the Duty Free Shop is the last and only stop. A haven for those who can't afford to pay, as well as those who refuse to. And for Duo, living as a ghost down in the city's mechanical innards, the question doesn't bear thinking on. He's not interested in anything but his next meal and the next rerun of his favorite show. Sky City has no hold on him. But Duo has a debt of his own, and its repayment is long in coming. Tonight, the man he owes his life to, a vicious Undercity gangster, is sending him topside, in search of the Duty Free and an idealistic politician he hopes can be corrupted. And as Duo steals through the city's airy streets, he finds the question of freedom — his own, and that of those around him — is one that he can no longer afford to ignore. A novella, approx. 100 pages