I work for a branch of the Commonwealth Constabulary, humanity’s interstellar police force, called the Professional Compliance Bureau. We’re the Commonwealth government’s internal affairs division and hunt down bent cops, corrupt officials, and misbehaving military personnel. My fellow Constabulary members neither like nor trust me, but that’s okay. I enjoy taking out the trash. When a senior navy officer is accused of murdering an envoy from the Shrehari Empire on Aquilonia Station, a human trading post on an airless moon, everyone fears it might shatter the peace with our restive neighbor. That makes it a case for my unit because we’re known by humans and Shrehari alike as the last of the incorruptibles, the ones unafraid of digging up the truth. Since I’m the chief superintendent commanding the Rim Sector PCB Detachment, I only handle extremely sensitive cases myself. Yet this one could quickly become the trickiest of my career. The Shrehari are a touchy species and would consider a mishandled inquiry, or worse a coverup, sufficient cause to sever diplomatic links with the Commonwealth. Yet whenever I investigate a case involving the military, I always wonder if something other than one of the seven deadly sins is involved. Was the envoy’s death an act of passion or an act of interstellar politics?

My name is Caelin Morrow, and I run the internal affairs bureau for the entire Commonwealth Rim Sector. It means I hunt down corrupt federal officials of all stripes—police, military, political or bureaucratic—in the most fractious and nowadays most dangerous part of human space. I also examine the private and professional lives of Constabulary officials destined for senior positions, to make sure they’re not hiding a habit of taking bribes, abusing their powers, or worse. Assistant Commissioner Elden Braband, newly appointed as chief of police on Mission Colony, is one of the latter, and I had declared him squeaky clean. When the colony’s governor complains about Braband a few months after his arrival, Deputy Chief Constable Maras, who commands the Rim Sector Constabulary Group, smells a rat. She asks me to investigate because honest cops don’t go bad within a few months. But hours after my team and I land on Mission Colony, a senior official is found dead in her office, leaving Assistant Commissioner Braband in a bind. The subsequent investigation will propel us into the heart of colonial darkness where corruption, organized crime, and corporate malfeasance combine in a deadly brew.

Investigating war crimes isn't Assistant Commissioner Caelin Morrow's usual sort of case. She normally hunts down corrupt Commonwealth officials. But with the reorganization of the Professional Compliance Bureau's Anti-Corruption Division, Morrow inherits primary responsibility for military crimes requiring outside scrutiny. And for her first case as the new head of Anti-Corruption Unit 12 (Military Crimes), she's heading for the Novaya Sibir star system with her team to look into allegations the elite 212th Pathfinder Squadron committed atrocities on a Protectorate Zone rogue colony. But all is not as it seems, and dirty politics soon rear their ugly head. Unfortunately for those who play fast and loose with the truth, Caelin Morrow is not only a superb investigator. She’ll also do whatever is necessary to take out the garbage.