In the vein of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, Walter Jon Williams’s Conventions of War, and James S. A. Corey’s Caliban’s War comes a powerful and fast-paced new science fiction novel from Warren Hammond, the author of KOP, Ex-KOP, and KOP Killer. Maritinia is at the far edge of the Empire, a planet with little economic value in the Sire’s sphere of influence. And it’s just rebelled. With little strategic importance, the people of Maritinia believe the Empire will not care that they’ve broken free. But the Empire is built on the belief that the Sire is incapable of failure, and if an insignificant planet can revolt, than other, more important planets, might follow suit—proving the Sire is not so infallible after all. So the Empire sends an agent to Maritinia with one mission: assassinate and replace one of the conspirators, and do enough to sow discord that when the soldiers do land, any opposition will be quickly crushed. Thus Jakob becomes Colonel Drake Kell and finds himself immersed in the inner circle of the madman who led the rebellion. A raw recruit with only his political officer—a separate consciousness inserted into his brain—to speak with, Jakob is out of his element as an operative, and as he falls deeper into the conspiracy, he begins to question everything: the despotic admiral in charge of the coup, his feelings for Kell’s (now his) woman, and—most troubling—whether he still agrees with the will of the Sire.