I tugged my worn blue cap lower, satisfied I wasn’t being tailed. Workers were just beginning to trickle out from their office jobs, rushing to the metros to commute home to their families or to restaurants and eateries to meet friends. Still too bright to turn on their neon signs, the windows of the shops and boutiques appeared unassuming, not yet ready for the throngs of fashionable teens and twenty-somethings to trample through once night had fallen. Street vendors shuffled and rearranged their merchandise: jewelry, purses, and shoes; I saw two cast a wary eye to the skies above. One vendor set out a colorful array of umbrellas especially coated to last against our acid rains.

I knew it would be a rowdy night, as everyone tried to stay out for as long as they could before the winds and rain hit. If it weren’t for meeting up with my friends, I’d be back at my makeshift home on Yangmingshan, reading, cruising the undernet, or working on something nefarious with Lingyi. Arun had called for an emergency meeting, and he wouldn’t have unless it was serious.

A silver limousine inched through the narrow street, hulking and ludicrous. It didn’t take a genius to know that some you teens had probably gotten their daddies’ permission to make an excursion out among the masses, to one of the exclusive clubs or restaurants pumped with regulated air, open only to those who were rich enough to be members.

Tucking my chin into the collar of my black denim jacket, I sneered as I strode past the limo. The vehicle pulsed from the music within, a steady, strong bass beat. A commercial for the limo company played across its opaque windows, featuring a gorgeous Taiwanese woman dressed in black showing off the car’s luxurious interior, lithe arms moving gracefully as she pushed buttons and was served champagne by a barbot. When I passed the back window, the flickering glass suddenly became transparent, revealing the actual interior with white seats bathed in bluish light. A you girl rapped on the windowpane, fingers curling, the other hand clutching a crystal flute filled with a liquid that glowed pink, the bubbles rising like bright stars.

The limousine had jerked to a stop, trying to navigate past the crush of people, and I stopped with it, staring at the you girl pressed against the window. She wore a silver dress beaded with crystal, the top revealing her full breasts. Though her features were Asian, her sleek hair was as deep red as her lipstick. Lifting her glass, she toasted me. Another girl leaped from the back of the car and wrapped an arm around the redhead’s shoulders, giggling. Watching them was surreal, like I was viewing another commercial projected on the limo’s window. The two dipped their heads together, animated, laughing. They looked no older than sixteen.