A Spartan, a hitwoman; frigid dark hair and gnawed lips, she's thinking of a dozen gratuitous ways to murder the man opposite her. She'll need to decide on one once the phone rings, and she's expecting it to. A pistol, a knife, and a cell phone all within her reach, she's ready to be used like a restless pen scribbling words to the pace of domineering, more self-assured dictation.

"I am not alone; they are here as well. I am frightened, but they are frightened, too."

In a distant, forgotten corner of the Milky Way, citizens of a desolate colony world somehow make end's meet amidst the Mecca of black market trade. And though a wretched hive of criminal existence, a far greater evil calculates beneath it all...and waits.