Author(s): Max Barry

Fiction

In the future, the world will be run by giant American corporations. Everybody will be so happy, tax-free and rich that they will change their name to that of their company. It will be a free market paradise! Which is where Hack Nike comes in. Hack is a lowly Merchandising Officer with negative career equity. In the future, this is not a good thing. So when John Nike and John Nike offer Hack Nike a job marketing a new line of really, really expensive trainers he is understandably thrilled. He is less thrilled when he discovers his duties include shooting teenagers in order to establish 'street cred' for the shoes. Stricken by a deeply unprofitable morality, Hack goes to the police who, happily, offer to shoot the teenagers for him, for a reasonable price. Unhappily for Hack, his actions have caught the attention of Jennifer Government - a tough-talking agent with a barcode under her eye and not one pair of really, really, expensive trainers. Jennifer's determined to nail Hack Nike, Hack's boss, John Nike and John Nike's boss John (Nike).