Backlash — Dean Murray

Jerome has spent his whole life working for the 'bad guys'. Born in the slums of Chicago, he'd always figured he'd come to an early end working for one criminal organization or another. Then the Company came along and implanted him with several million dollars worth of technology so bleeding edge most governments didn't even know it was technologically feasible yet.

Most of what he did was still illegal, and he wasn't likely to make age thirty-five, but the pay was better. Only things had become more complicated lately. The potentials were degenerating more quickly and he'd lost an alarming number of associates to the flesh beasts that most potentials turned into when they finally lost control.

His current mission should be a piece of cake, a simple snatch and grab that would give him a chance to get nominally out from under the psych types constantly watching for signs he needed put down like a rabid dog. Manpower was stretched too thin for them to send along backup but he'd always preferred to work alone. He didn't count on what was about to happen.

'Backlash' is one of a series of loosely-related short stories set in a world where shadowy operatives with advanced technology hunt down 'potentials' who have the ability to manifest powers and abilities which have so far defied explanation.

3000 words.