Author Description

After Elle's adoptive father is killed smuggling secrets for the Reclamation movement, she takes refuge in Court's rural village. When the once tranquil life of the village is torn apart, Court and Elle find themselves embroiled in a desperate mission for which they are ill-equipped. If they can locate people they don't know how to find and deliver intelligence they don't understand, maybe they can buy some time for the human race. With Qyntarak hunting them, they'll be lucky just to survive. And if they succeed, it might be too late to matter. EXCERPT Walker began to move but Court kept his grip on him and shook his head no. They waited until the hum was gone and the chirping of birds resumed. The old man was lying on his back with a hole in his chest almost as large as his head. What was left of his torso was covered in gray powder. Blood oozed and mixed with it, creating a sludge in the cavity. Walker steadied himself against a tree and vomited. "You alright?" "I'm fine." "Where's the other one?" They found the body, stiff and unmoving, among the trees at the edge of the road. "It's a girl," Walker said. "Or a woman, I guess." She wore a dull black bodysuit with no visible seams or fasteners. Her helmet was solid with no visor or eyeholes. Court pressed his fingers against her neck and then her wrist. "The suit's cold. I can't feel a pulse through it, and I don't see how to remove it." "We can cut it open with my hunting knife." "No, not out here. We need to get them closer to the village and find Marsh. He'll know what to do." Court was weeks away from his twentieth birthday, almost a year since he became a full adult in the village, and even though the fourteen-year-old Walker thought the older teen knew everything, Court was well aware of how much he didn't know. Like what to do with two dead bodies. "We'll push them on the motorcycle," he said. They