The World Stone
Vincent was on the hunt.
His sister was still on the run. First, on a job to the alien planet Viridian and then beyond. It didn’t make any sense. Wasn’t one alien world enough? Not for Helen. She discovered a vast network of worlds connected through a system called The World Engine, and she was on the move. Looking for a way past the gravity well, keeping her ship stranded on Viridian. She was out there searching, and he was nipping at her heels.
There was one new wrinkle standing in Vincent’s way. The Curator in charge of running the World Engine was starting to break down. There were bugs in the ancient AI’s system. Eating his memory. Fraying away at his personality matrix. Before the AI would help them, it wanted a little help of its own. They would fix the system. He would find his sister.
Vincent was close, one job away from tracking Helen down.
Back on Mars, things were getting dicey. The confederation wanted answers. Where was their man, and more importantly, where was the Zosmodious? Hunter didn’t have the answers they wanted. Helen was missing. Vincent was M.I.A. He was stuck footing the bill for two little brats he didn’t know anything about. His world felt balanced on a precipice. One tilt in the wrong direction, and it would all come crumbling down.
Most of the men he knew would have eaten the loss and lived to fight another day. Hunter would never be most men. If the Confederation wanted to push him, he would double down. Not just more resources. Hunter was going to throw everything he had at Viridian. One roll of the dice to control his fate. This was his moment. He wasn’t going to miss it. The Zosmodious must flow.
His legacy depended on it.