WHEN FRIENDS ARE FALSE AND MONEY IS FAKE, MURDER MAKES NO CONCESSIONS. St Petersburg, The Russian Empire - December 1909 A man’s butchered body is found at a meat market, hands hacked off and nailed to the wall, tongue sliced out, a wad of fake roubles stuffed in the gap. Troubled by echoes of his past, Inspector of Investigation Tursunov understands the message, but his efforts to unmask the killer are blocked at every turn by the security apparatus of a state on the brink of revolution. Caught in a lethal web of political ambition, rival gangs and the ruthless games of a childhood friend, disturbed by the attractions of his cadet’s young sister, Tursunov must choose between family, career and a truth that will lead to a deadly reckoning.

Set in a not too distant future, there is a divide between normally born humans and the genetically engineered elite, this divide is no more starkly evident than in the Federal Military. Sergeant Elizabeth Ryder is a Normal, burning out amidst the pressure of off-world service. Brigadier General Jerome Mistry is a 'Capo' and high achiever. He is frustrated with her mistakes and she hates his perfection. Full of enmity and mistrust, the pair are thrown together when highly classified data is hijacked on Ryder's watch. Ordered out into the Helixian desert to catch the thief the pair learn Federal secrets that endanger both their lives ... At the mercy of Terence Cheng's manipulations, they are forced to trust each other and see beyond genetic differences and Federal manipulation; taking the argumentative pair on a voyage of discovery and questioning that leads ultimately to an answer neither of them could have expected.