Hundreds of years after the Cascadian Subduction Zone suffered a cataclysmic event, the dystopic inland city of New Washington sits among the Rocky Mountains, with a crime riddled and impoverished underbelly. Herald Fischer, a government database specialist living in the city which has been built on a foundation of high-level technology and corporate governance, is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers while undergoing surgery, and has a bomb implanted in his chest. He is forced into criminal labor while the ever-present threat of detonation lingers, quite literally constricting his heart.  Fischer is given an order, a location, and a timeframe to complete his objectives, or else the looming threat ends his life. However, when he has to take his first life during this endeavor, Fischer plunges fully into the thrilling and adrenaline pumping life of a criminal Techrunner, as the rest of his life collapses around him.  [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]