Bridge Trilogy

NEW YORK TIMES bestseller 2005: Welcome to NoCal and SoCal, the uneasy sister-states of what used to be California. The millennium has come and gone, leaving in its wake only stunned survivors. In Los Angeles, Berry Rydell is a former armed-response rentacop now working for a bounty hunter...

San Francisco in the nearish future. Ex-cop Berry Rydell's lost one job he didn't much like and landed another he likes even less. Some sunglasses—actually high-end kit infused with super-sensitive data—were stolen from a courier, and a man named Warbaby's been charged with retrieving them. And Warbaby needs Rydell's help. But, with SFPD Homicide involved, an abandoned bridge populated by freaks and misfits, and some weirdness involving the Republic of Desire and a 'Death Star', it's turning out to be a very strange and dangerous scene indeed . . .

After an attack of scruples, Colin Laney's skipped out on his former employer Slitscan—avoiding the rash of media lawyers sent his way—and taken a job for the outfit managing Japanese rock duo, Lo/Rez. Rez has announced he's going to marry an "idoru" by the name of Rei Toi—she exists only in virtual reality—and this creates complications that Laney, a net runner, is supposed to sort out.

Ex-cop Berry Rydell has been hired by Colin Laney—who is hooked deep into the network of things—to go to San Francisco and act in such a way that he comes to the attention of a certain unspecified individual. This, Laney promises Rydell, could prove life-threatening. And now Rydell's been sent a package. Something that belonged to Laney, something that others with guns, blades and very bad attitudes want.