Show Notes
Kenzo Tanaka, a washed-up intellectual property rights enforcer turned PI, takes a “lost dog” case from a woman he believes to be a dazzling biotech heiress. However, he soon discovers that the dog is a human-canine chimera growing a life-extending Klotho gland, which is highly illegal. His gene-hacker friend dies for the discovery, which leads Kenzo on a chase through the Great Plains Economic Zone’s lawless biotech underworld, ending at a mountain research compound guarded by weaponized hybrid dogs. As he escapes with the lost dog, Kenzo is confronted by his client, who turns out to be an organ broker working for a wealthy client. Although tempted by profit, Kenzo chooses not to hand over the dog and vanishes the prize for good.
CONNECT WITH US
SHARE THE PODCAST
If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe.
CREDITS
Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare).
Read by Stephen Peterson.
Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann.
Produced by Vecada Studios.
Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
More from Original Science Fiction - Makeshift Stories
Authorities tie RZ to Rhonda’s alias and begin to move in. However, she refuses to leave without helping Gene escape financial ruin caused by Doctor Reid, a virtual online therapist program that has been conning him out of his money. She decides to take down Net Wellness by exposing the company's exploitation of vulnerable clients and destroying the therapist program. But taking down the system risks psychological damage to the people who depend on it. Rhonda is left with the same dilemma she faced thirty-five years earlier.
Thirty-five years after fleeing Cascadia, infamous hacktivist Rhonda—RZ—returns to New Vancouver when her former lover, Gene, begins spending his savings on treatments recommended by an online therapist. Gene insists Doctor Reid understands him better than anyone ever has. Rhonda suspects otherwise. Risking arrest, she slips back into the skills that destroyed her old life and discovers the therapist is far less intelligent—and far more predatory—than it appears. But proving the truth may not be enough to save Gene from himself.
At an exclusive island retreat for billionaires, celebrities, and politicians, Rani watches his lifelong friend Arjun get pulled into a universe where money erases limits—and other people’s problems become someone else’s responsibility. When the brain interface Arjun has designed for him interferes with the retreat’s security, Rani is forced back into a wheelchair while investors court his friend with bigger plans for the invention. As ambition strains their friendship, Arjun must decide what success is really worth before losing everything that mattered.
Kenzo, a former corporate IP enforcer, is hiding from his old employers by working on a remote farm. When Janet X, who owns the farm, gets a patent-infringement threat about crops she insists are legal, Kenzo steps in to help. At first, it seems like a typical patent troll case, but Kenzo catches the accuser planting evidence and uncovers a bigger search for illegal crops. Suddenly, Kenzo faces a tough choice: use what he knows for his own gain or stand up for the community against corporate greed.
During a deadly heat wave, unwilling to abandon his aging collie or give up his independence, 80-year-old Ryker refuses to leave his subsidized apartment. He soon becomes delirious from dehydration and heat, hallucinating that he is alone on a doomed alien world with a loyal robot. But when he collapses, the old collie must save him.