THE LONG SYNOPSIS

 Background 2108 AD

The seaport city of Vancouver has survived a sea level rise, a major earthquake, and the chaos triggered by global economic and ecological catastrophe.  During the Collapse, downtown was abandoned and it is now an island of derelict office towers populated by the impoverished descendants of refugees, many of them black Americans.  The situation Downtown is deteriorating as the population grows and old buildings crumble, but for Guild citizens elsewhere life is good.  Cascadia [the Pacific Northwest] is governed by a complexly interwoven network of resource and industry-based Guilds, and those Guilds have gradually rebuilt a sustainable economy and infrastructure. 

Guild citizens who are now over 40 lived through starvation, violence and pandemics, and they are deeply conservative--opposed to anything that might threaten their hard-earned security.  The young generation, however, have led sheltered lives of relative affluence and genetically optimized health.  They want to travel, spend money and have fun.  They balk at rules, restrictions and responsibilities, and they are sick to death of hearing stories about the bad old days (the pandemic equivalent of walking ten miles to school, up hill both ways).

The Story

Following the death of her father, Klale* Rehardt flees the confines of her north coast town to start a new life outside the Fishers Guild.  A strong capable, 24 year old who has worked fish boats for years, Klale figures she's ready for anything, but her first night alone in the dark streets of Downtown proves otherwise.  She narrowly escapes a bludging by the Ghost Shadows gang, then reaching the relative safely of the notorious KlonDyke lesbian bar, she jumps impetuously into a brawl. 

Fortunately for Klale, her impulse in going to the aid of the KlonDyke's bartender wins her a friend.  Toni is someone far outside Klale's experience.  A 50-year-old Afroid woman who grew up in "the Zone" (a relocation camp outside of Chicago), Toni is a smart, tough loner who never talks about her past.  But she takes a liking to Klale and gets her hired by the KlonDyke's manager, Mary Tungsten Smarch.

While Klale celebrates her first independent job, Toni worries about war.  The stability of Downtown, maintained for years by a pact between the major tongs [organized crime], has been upset by plans for a Maglev railway terminal--a project which will draw the Guilds back to the lawless island and may force a new exodus of refugees.  Toni fears losing her home and her job, but that prospect dims beside a more immediate threat when she attracts the attention of Choi Shung Wai, Downtown's most feared blackmailer.  For years, Toni has been surreptitiously influencing Choi's giant bio-altered slave, Blade, and if Choi discovers this he will have her killed... or worse.

Meanwhile, Klale demonstrates a knack for attracting smog [trouble].  She accepts a bet and does an amateur strip act at the KlonDyke to the popular underground tune "Fuck the Guild," not considering the inevitable consequence that the act will be uploaded to CoastNet and viewed back home in Prince Rupert.  Enraged Fishers take steps to strip Klale permanently of her citizenship and Klale, who is now seeing real poverty, violence and disease for the first time, begins to fear for her future.

Klale is also both frightened and fascinated by the ugly deaf-mute Blade, Choi's enforcer.  But her failure to persuade Toni that they should help him threatens their newfound friendship, and she begins to believe rumours that Toni was once a torturer for the tongs. When Klale's naive efforts to help the squats and flots attract the attention of a vengeful hidden enemy, Klale no longer knows who she can turn to.

Blade knows secrets of Downtown which might save Klale. But, trapped in his own damaged, psychotic mind, Blade is unable to help anyone--least of all himself. Toni knows that it's only a matter of time before his rage explodes and destroys everyone around him.

The backdrop of this drama is the troubled relationship between the citizens of Vancouver and the destitute, exploited flots and squats who the Guilds have ignored for decades. Will Vancouverites turn a blind eye while Maglev railway promoters incite a tong war as an excuse to send in troops and slaughter refugees? Or will they face the ugly truth that the Guilds are strongly entwined with both refugees and tongs, and nobody's hands are clean? 

*Klale, my protagonist's nickname, is the Chinook word for blue. She pronounces it to rhyme with daily or ukelele.