The encounters in the short stories in Michael Washburn's latest collection take place at the fault lines of a violent and unstable society. In these tales, fugitives, drifters, misfits, and outcasts meet in locales as varied as hotels, bars, galleries, lecture halls, parks, pastures, beaches, and battlefields, but tension arises almost invariably from the interplay of sinister intelligences that rightly distrust one another. Marking all the stories in this collection are the suspense, originality, vividness, wit, and dark humor for which the author is known.