Author Description

Ainsley is living a double life. She works a menial job arranged by her father, a successful human-alien liaison. She quietly despises everything her collaborating parents represent. And she performs acts of sabotage against the occupying Qyntarak. In the wake of a botched job that leaves someone dead, Ainsley receives an invitation to take part in an operation on a much larger scale than her own clandestine activities. Drowning in grief and desperate for redemption, Ainsley takes the job and soon finds herself misleading good people. When she faces a choice that would violate her principles in service of the mission, Ainsley must decide who she is willing to betray. EXCERPT The guard swore and Ainsley used the distraction to pull her arm free. She rolled with the momentum and landed on her back. As the guard turned on her, she drove her foot between his legs and he stumbled sideways. Ainsley clambered to her feet. Jasmine already had the guard's stun gun in her hand. She fired a slug into him and he convulsed before collapsing, moaning as he pressed his hand to the slug's point of impact. Jasmine adjusted the gun's settings and fired again. The man shook as he lost consciousness. His head rolled to one side and the lights from the drones shifted to illuminate the area where he would be looking if he were awake. "Now we really have to move." Jasmine tossed the gun aside and started up the old chain-link fence. "There's razor wire up there." "A little razor wire never hurt anyone." "Pretty sure the exact opposite is true." "Relax. I'll cut away a section. It's faster than making a new hole in the fence." Ainsley wasn't convinced but Jasmine had the cutters and was a third of the way up already. Over it would be. The fence rattled and shook as they climbed. A length of razor wire fell to the ground as Ainsley climbed. Jasmine snipped and tossed more segments until there was an opening wid