73. UNDER THE REDLINE – Adult Science Fiction

Mentor Name: Whitney Fletcher

Mentee Name: Rebecca Coffindaffer

Title: UNDER THE REDLINE

Category: Adult

Genre: Science Fiction

Word Count: 89,000

Pitch:

To provide for her sisters in the slums of Zion, Valkyrie Bruinn has leveraged her unique ability to teleport in order to become a legendary hitwoman. But when a kill order goes south and her sisters disappear, she’ll tear apart everything—friends, enemies, even the planet itself—to find them.

Excerpt:

Not everyone bleeds red. No one else in the city of Covenant knows this quite like Valkyrie Bruinn.

Ryzkites—they bleed black. Black and sticky, like that experimental fuel that was a big trend with the elites above the redline for a few years, until the inventor disappeared and everyone went back to sun-wave generators and government-provided naphtha-blu. Zinbarrellians have blood that sizzles through human skin and twice as many veins and arteries per square inch. You cut them small and from a distance. Pahravians always bleed in pairs, one blue and one orange. Jilkes’ blood is red in the veins but turns purple when it hits Zion’s air.

All of them will stain white clothes if you don’t soak them right away in black-market doggrel urine. Val went through three suits before Rosie and Faheem figured that trick out.

Standing at the back of Miga’s Noodle Stand, she grips a small hammer and slams it down on the hard outer shell of the squim on the prep table, cracking it into sections so she can peel out the soft, white flesh inside. Her fingers are nimble, trained; they work quickly, brushing the remnants onto the refuse heap and snicking another squim from the pile of carcasses near her elbow.

Miga pokes his head through the service window. “You okay, Val?”

She grunts.

“Nice haul, huh? Catchers had a good night in the alleys. Gave me good rates. Should let us stay open for a few more hours tonight.”