In this short story, Waylee Freid, a young reporter in a near-future Baltimore, uncovers evidence that a powerful corporation called MediaCorp secretly co-opted the government to take control of nearly everything people see and hear. Can she get her evidence out and reverse the process before it's too late? Or will her editors succumb to outside pressure and bury her story?In this short story, Waylee Freid, a young reporter in a near-future Baltimore, uncovers evidence that a powerful corporation called MediaCorp secretly co-opted the government to take control of nearly everything people see and hear. Can she get her evidence out and reverse the process before it's too late? Or will her editors succumb to outside pressure and bury her story? And if her evidence was obtained illegally, who's in the right? This ebook also includes the first scene of Sleep State Interrupt, a novel which takes place after the events of The Story. In this scene, an independent news organization takes on MediaCorp and finds itself under siege from riot police with experimental weapons.

Fifty years after a coup replaced President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a fascist dictatorship, America is a land of hopelessness. Ben Adamson, a 19-year-old farm boy in southern Illinois, wants only to spend his time fishing and hunting. But when his dead brother demands justice for his suspicious fate in a colonial war, Ben and Rachel, his brother's fiancée, are drawn into an underground revolutionary movement.After staging a rally against the war, Ben and Rachel are arrested by the Internal Security Service, who have perfected the science of breaking people. Ben is given a choice: betray the rebels, including his best friend from childhood, or Rachel will be lobotomized.Although traumatized and addicted to a powerful drug, Ben refuses to doom anyone he cares about. Can he find a third option? Can he free Rachel and strike back at the dictatorship, while dodging the suspicions of police and rebels alike?