A burned-out detective trapped in a cold case finds a curious lead-- the severed head of an android who cries for help in the voice of his dead wife. It has her memories. It has her personality. But is it. Elsie? Harlan's cold case takes center stage in the novella Our Bird Trills Mechanical, but desperate people willing to do whatever it takes fill the pages: people like Lucian Lucky, an augment-addicted prizefighter who must decide if the cost of winning is worth the size of the purse; or Javier, a love-struck henchman who' s fallen for the niece of his violent boss.