The Price of Everything

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 CLIMATE FICTION PRIZE. Corporations fall, gangsters are killed, but no-one messes with the Couriers Guild. After the Cyber Wars cratered the internet, many saw a chance to pivot from a world order that was choking the planet. But not those profiting from it. They just shrugged, pivoted to an all-cash economy, and got back to making billions while the world burned. When Armand Pierce joined the Couriers Guild, he had a titanium cuff bolted to his wrist and an attaché case chained to it. He took an oath: the delivery is everything. It's the Guild's guarantee, and all business, legitimate or otherwise, depends on it. He can run, fight-kill, if he needs to-but the package gets where it's going. Otherwise, he dies. So Pierce knows he's in deep trouble when he arrives at his latest destination to find his payload missing, his case mysteriously empty. Something strange is going on. Something that's already cost three couriers their lives. On the run from the guild's assassins, Pierce must navigate a dense network of oligarchs, drugs dealers, private police forces, and brilliant but radical climate activists to get to the bottom of a scheme that could change everything.