Hard Guy

"Hard Guy" by Howard Browne is a science fiction tale set in a futuristic world, where an ordinary salesman named Frederick Marden picks up a hitchhiker and suddenly finds himself entangled in the dangerous world of the Strato Rovers. The hitchhiker, Mike Eagen, tells Marden about the Rovers, a group that walks a tightrope between being heroes and criminals as they target other criminals, leading them to a dangerous mission to stop the Black Hornet from sabotaging a government facility. The story plays with the idea of understanding the truth as Marden comes to find out that Eagen is not who he says he is and is only an eleven-year-old boy who is exaggerating his claims.