Buenos Aires Triad by F.E. Beyer
“This curve in the river, a stone’s throw from one of the biggest tourist draws in the city, was worth cleaning, but the catamarans didn’t go further upstream to where faecal matter from the barrios and heavy metals from industry were plentiful. The funds to clean up that crap had been embezzled, or so they said. If the river was ever cleaned, journalists would miss using it as a symbol for corruption in the city.”
“He was twelve hundred down. This was against the odds, true bad luck, and then it occurred to him the fights could be rigged. He hadn’t been paying attention to the politicians. Were they winning? Could they be ring-ins: invertebrates betting on invertebrates? He wanted to bust their faces, but willed himself to walk out the door. The invertebrates, sooner or later, always won.”