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MATHEW SWAIN

The twenty-first century's hard-boiled private eye in a city where ghettos are war-zones, the rich hide behind six inches of armor plate, and the cops work for the highest bidder.

In a town like that, you've got to be tough to stay alive.

HOT TIME IN OLD TOWN

Someone had iced one of Swain's friends with a weapon that left nothing but memories behind. That made Swain mad, and he set out to nail the killer, against odds more crooked than a rigged carny wheel. His relentless thirst for justice took him to the penthouses, boardrooms and bedrooms of the filthy rich. To the DMZ, a no-man's-land with its own laws. And finally to Old Town, a radiation-soaked mutant enclave, where he uncovered a secret so deadly it had been paid for with a thousand lives.

The 21st century's toughest private eye in a future that's running down like a dime-store watch. Where the line between rich and poor is a DMZ and they clean the streets with meat wagons. If you're not tough in a world like that, you're dead.

WHEN TROUBLE BECKONS...

Swain is always first in line. This time it starts with a desperate Moon-to-Earth call from an old flame and a zombie assassin who tries to give Swain a haircut to his knees. To save the woman he loves from mind-wasting madness, Swain takes off for Freefall, a company town with a capital "C." A space colony of palefaced drones who live -- and die - by the time clock.

When he keeps getting questions instead of answers, Swain, aided by a streetwise lady space cabby, decides to blow the joint apart.

The 21st century's toughest private eye in a future that doesn't work, where crime is the national pastime and the supercorps have the cops in their hip pocket. In a world like that, you've got to be quick-or crazy. Mathew Swain is a little of both.

THE DEADLIEST SHOW IN TOWN

Still reeling from the near-death of the woman he loves, Swain takes a contract from the Fish Man, head of a media conglomerate that plays with reality like a baby plays with fire. Swain's supposed to locate their prize anchorwoman, a sleck redhead who gets her kicks in the city's slcaziest sex shops. Trying to keep ahead of a rival network that plays for keeps, he uncovers a plot to kill the Governor-and this time, even Swain's comrade-at-arms Hermanita may not be able to save him.

The 21st century's toughest private eye in a city so mean just staying alive is a full-time job. In a town like that, if Swain can't help you, it's time to start praying.

THE ODDS ARE MURDER

Swain wasn't betting on his future. He'd returned home, wasted and flat broke, to find the city ravaged by a deadly plague. But when an old friend got fried before his eyes, Swain was back in business. The stakes were life and death for millions, including Swain's long-lost love. Odds were he'd die catching the murderer - if the plague didn't kill him first!