In the near future, the recession doesn't just go on and on, it deepens and devolves. But people desperate for work will find there's one place that's always hiring...
Enter the labyrinth of HRW International--a business that profits from the termination of its own employees. As Director of Personnel, Zeno Jacobs must hire only the young, the unqualified, and the incapable so he will earn his bonus. And he'll do anything for a bonus.
While Zeno plods through daily interviews, Los Angeles is engulfed in the Hundred Days Riots, a movement stoked by a treacherous murderer known as El Consumidor. When nearby neighborhoods are torched, Zeno worries about his home and his lover, and about whether or not his job has eroded his moral convictions.
Then Zeno discovers a bonus worth having: a life-changing sum of money that's his for the taking. And for this treasure, he will give up the safety of evacuation--placing not only his own life at risk, but also those of his new wife and their unborn child.
