Guardian Angels (2008)

When a bomb threat shuts down the Vinestead West building in Sacramento, senior developer Rick Diaz' first thought is to head back home, but his new friend Bonnie has other ideas. From a fancy breakfast on the rich side of town to a sim parlor in the tech mecca of Umbra, Bonnie shows Rick that there's more to life than writing code for a ruthless conglomerate.

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Where to Buy

Guardian Angels is only available in Kindle format at Amazon.

Starring

Rick Diaz - Senior developer at Vinestead International, Rick writes code for the Guardian Angel biochip. He is unhappily married, quietly resentful, and deeply committed to his routine. Until he isn't.

Bonnie - She loves trashy romance novels, thirty-three-dollar lipstick, and hanging out in Umbra. She is warm, funny, and seems genuinely interested in Rick. Seems.

Author's Note

Guardian Angels started with a dream: a train, a stranger, and the unease of meeting someone who seems too good to be true. I loved the idea of a woman who isn't what she seems, and a man who falls for it completely. Hook, line, and sinker.

But the story that lives in my head is bigger than Rick's skip day. Behind Bonnie's smile: an army coordinating across the city, a first strike against Vinestead International, a war that's just getting started. That part wrote itself once I had the ending locked. And the ending was never in question. Rick gets one perfect day. One glimpse of a different life. Then he becomes a casualty of something he never even knew he was part of.

That's the Vinestead Anthology in miniature, really. The big ugly thing in the background, slouching towards Bethlehem, while someone just tries to live their life.

Trivia

• A small story with just a couple of people, but the events in this story echo across the Vinestead Anthology, specially when it comes to the war against Vinestead.