Part of the award-winning Five Worlds series. Contains strong language. Kata has finally escaped the torture and illegal experiments of GenTech and the manipulations of his homeworld, Trandellia. Severely traumatized, he only wants one thing: a safe haven where he doesn’t have to be used as a pawn in other people’s games. With the help of Alan Morgan, the only adult figure whom Kata has ever learned to trust, he’s begun to rebuild his life on the planet Akkhen. Meanwhile, on Trandellia, the hol Diran Nasceri has just received a crazy assignment from Adrianne Demont, the Trandellian planetary ruler: join forces with the holin under Adrianne’s command for a raid on Alan’s base of command, the field hospital on Atthiras. Mobilizing all of the holin – Trandellia’s shadow troops and assassins – for the sake of one target is unheard-of. Mobilizing them against Akkhenian soldiers in an assault is unthinkable.