Marginalia

Bailey likes to cut people—in a purely consensual way—which makes his work as a surgical technician with cosmetic enhancement corporation SirenCare his dream job. His recreational pursuits, however, would displease his employer, so he lives his personal life on the margins of Sydney, away from SirenCare’s corporate enclave, taking his chances in a city without water or power.

Quint is one of his chances, an illegal resident who pulls beer and breaks up fights. Quint’s not used to corporate men with the means to buy water, but he could get accustomed to being with Bailey and Bailey’s friend, Flynn, who engineers new and addictive body mods for SirenCare.

When Immigration incarcerates Quint as an illegal resident, only intervention by a corporation can free him. Can Bailey, with Flynn, persuade SirenCare that a disreputable bar tender is carrying experimental body mods, and should be rescued from detention?

Originally published in the Spiked anthology.