In a future where the United States is slowly rebuilding itself, Omega Travis Danten is a big city cop sent to a seemingly desolate city on the edge of the Waste. This desert is full of undesirables, and it’s only a matter of time before they wreak havoc. But, Omegas are always assigned Alphas, and his new partner’s job is to protect him.<br><br>But SdAI Alpha Virgil is not at all amused with the partner who chose him. Travis is willful and naive to the dangers a homicide detective faces here, and it makes Virgil’s job that much harder. And Travis, of course, is human and develops feelings, feelings that go beyond the rules about Omega/Alpha partnerships.<br><br>Travis and Virgil have to find common ground, find a killer, and find space for each other in their own hearts, even if one is artificial.

Artificial Heart

They fell into a tense silence as they slowly finished the drive. Travis didn’t know what to expect when they arrived, but the shattered pieces of metal twisting toward the mid-afternoon sky wasn’t it. He thought…He didn’t know what to think. Nothing in the massive field looked like it belonged to the ancient airplanes he’d seen in pictures.


Virgil stopped the car under the shadow of one black tower. “We walk from here. The pathways are too narrow to drive.”


Under the ominous monuments, they made their way toward the faint sound of other voices. On foot, it was ten blistering minutes before they came to the first agent guarding the perimeter. A flash of their badges and they were waved on. Eerily, the noise never rose above a steady murmur.


As they rounded the last twisted wreck of metal, they saw why.


Chapter 12