HIS SON DIED AND HE WANTS VENGEANCE Prince Michael, a.k.a. Lt. Cmdr. Michael Vauxhall, died when Bert Mangum and his crew on Silverheel had to fight their way out of the Earth system. Now King Albert wants revenge. He assigns investigators to find out who killed his son, and where they are. Bert Mangum, Elina Stavros, Chuck Pendergast, Gloria Dent, and Davian Varley are in the king's sights now, and he wants them dead. Will they convince the king to leave them alone? Or will the king's vendetta succeed and kill them all? . AN INTERVIEW WITH RICH WEYAND So what's the setup for Agency #4: Marque? In Agency #3: The Cure, our heroes freed Davian Varley, the inventor of the cure for RDT addiction, who had been held without charges for eighteen years. They were about to make it out of the Earth system, taking Varley with them, when the Earth Planetary Police decided to randomly check their ship. It all falls into the pot from there, and they had to fight their way out of the system. Yes, yes, but how does that lead to book #4? When their missile struck the Vauxhall heavy cruiser, there were secondary explosions of the missiles in the cruiser's feed queue. Those secondary explosions killed dozens of crew members, including one Lieutenant Commander Michael Vauxhall, Prince Michael, King Albert's third child. Oh, and the king wants revenge. Yes. King Albert wants Mangum, Stavros, Dent, Pendergast and Varley dead. He very nearly succeeds. Our heroes have to convince him to knock it off. How did Agency #4: Marque write? Thirty-five writing days, at an average 2250 words per day. That's on a par with Agency #3: The Cure, and faster than the first two Agency books. They took longer as I learned the sub-genre of espionage SF, but I'm now at a pretty normal pace for me. What's on the cover? Another great cover done specifically for me by Luca Oleastri and Paola Giari of Rotwang Studios. The cover depicts the team the cluster sends to convince King Albert to knock it off. Phyllis Stickney, high-adept computer hacker/cracker from Gaston's BIE, Chuck Pendergast, direct action operative for the Agency, Judy Blunt, a specialist for the Agency, and Jules, the alien shape-shifter. Specialist? What does Judy Blunt specialize in? Nope. Spoilers are possible. It's fun - in a thriller context, anyway - and let's leave it at that. So what's next? Is there another Agency book, or is this the end of the series? There's at least one more Agency book. The kingdoms of the core worlds and the democracies of the cluster are on a collision course. Who will prevail? We'll see.