The story you set an a post disaster. dystopian future city, appearing to be somewhere in the United States, called the urb, which has been disturbed by an earthquake known as the "big shake" the Urb is a plagued by poverty,thieves gang warfare, and the use of mind probes, Mind probes are Analogous to hard drugs and enable users to temporarily escape from the harsh lives through images like movies being played in their heads.
Genetically improved people, called "proovs," (A play on
" improved" ) Live in a city called Eden, with a beautiful society, food and water. Eden is separated from the urb by the " forbidden zone," A deadly and dangerous minefield. The Urb is split up into sections called " latches". Each latch is controlled by a gang. Spaz is a 14-year-old boy who cannot use mineprobes because his epilepsy and whose adoptive family has abandoned him because they feared symptoms of his illness. Spaz runs errands for Billy Bizmo, The latch-boss (leader) of his own gang, The "bully Bangers," in this section of the Urb. On one of his errands, spaz is sent to "rip-off" (steal from) Ryter of very old man who possesses last arts literacy and literature.
