The Minerva Sierra Challenge is a grueling spectacle, the cyborg's Tour de France. Rich thrill seekers with corporate sponsorships, extensive support teams, and topof-the-line exoskeletal and internal augmentations pit themselves against the elements in a daylong race across the Sierra Nevadas. Marmeg Guinto doesn't have funding, and she doesn't have support. She cobbled her gear together from parts she found in rich people's garbage and spent the money her mother wanted her to use for nursing school to enter the race. But the race is the only chance she has at a better life for herself and her younger brothers, and she's ready to risk it all.