Escape Pod 207: Wonder Maul Doll
Wonder Maul Doll
By Kameron Hurley
We set down in Pekoi as part of the organics inquisition team, still stinking of the last city. We’re all muscle. Not brains. The brains are out eating at the foreigners’ push downtown, and they don’t care if we whore around the tourist dregs half the night so long as somebody’s sober enough to haul them out come morning. When the brains aren’t eating, they’re pretending to give us directions in the field, telling us where to sniff out organics. They’re writing reports about how dangerous Pekoi is to the civilized world.
We’re swapping off some boy in a backwater push the locals cleared out for us. We’re sitting around a low table. I pass off another card to Kep. Luce swaps out a suit. She has to sit on one leg to lean over the table. It’s hot in the low room, so humid that moths clutter aroundour feet, too heavy to fly.
The boy’s making little mewling sounds again. Somebody should shut him up, but not me. This is my hand. I’m ahead.
About the Author
Kameron Hurley
Kameron Hurley is the author of The Stars are Legion and The Geek Feminist Revolution, as well as the award-winning God’s War Trilogy and The Worldbreaker Saga. Hurley has won the Hugo Award, Kitschy Award, and Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. She was also a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nebula Award, and the Gemmell Morningstar Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Popular Science Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, and many anthologies. Hurley has also written for The Atlantic, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice, Bitch Magazine, and Locus Magazine. She posts regularly at KameronHurley.com.
About the Narrator
Kim the Comic Book Goddess
Kim the Comic Book Goddess is a musician and podcaster from near Scranton PA. Her podcast, Geek Pantheon and Your Moment of Kim, was a finalist for the Parsec for Best Speculative Fiction Comedy / Parody Podcast. In addition to Geek Pantheon, she is a member of the cast and crew of the 9th Heroescast (Parsec Finalist – Best Fancast) and has read, acted or composed and recorded music for at least 15 other podcasts, including Escape Pod, Metamor City, SciPhi Journal, and Buffy Between the Lines.
