THE SAFETY PROTOCOL The rain never stops. The streets are spotless. Crime is down to nothing, and nobody can remember the last time they did something without checking first. Vara enforces the Safety Protocol — the system that made the city perfect. She’s efficient, she’s trusted, and she is very good at not asking what her work is for. That gets her noticed. It gets her promoted. It gets her handed the levers. Then a surveillance feed flags a child’s red balloon as an unscheduled object. It’s logged. No action is

• Sci-fi