In the year 2184, the US is divided. Half the country has moved on with the rest of the world, while in middle America, the survivors of the terrorist biological attack that split the country struggle just to stay alive. Though a century has passed, few people brave going behind the borders meant to contain the danger. Even the privatized military is reluctant to do so.<br><br>But that doesn’t stop recently discharged Sullivan Eberle. Only one thing drives him anymore -- the need to find Raphael Hamada. He doesn’t know why. He only knows he must. If that means a lifetime behind the borders, then so be it.<br><br>Rafe Hamada ran away from the real world when he was still a kid. The last thing he wants is to be found, especially by a soldier who can’t even tell him why it was so important to locate him in the first place. He’d like nothing more than for Sullivan to leave, but turning his back on a man alone and friendless is against everything Rafe stands for ...

Penny Candles

“When Ren told me about his fears, I told him he was overthinking it,” she said. “He did that a lot. He was too smart for his own good, sometimes. And he was always too smart for Strike. But he was persistent. He wore me down. Even when I tried to argue that he’d kept Rafe safe so long already with his dispensation.”


Sighing, Maria finally rose and went to the counter to pick up a towel to clean up her coffee. “Rafe’s prime. Did he tell you that?”


“But he probably didn’t tell you how he almost died three times before he was two.”


Sullivan’s eyes shot wide. “No. Why? How?”


Chapter 52