Ghost Cell

Picking up where Topping’s Rogue Sequence left off, this relentless redemption tale of a genetically modified bad guy going straight mixes an emotional exploration of lifetime regrets with cutthroat bladework. Operative Ander Rade is on the run and trying to live a peaceful life after a government-sponsored mission gone wrong. Then he’s contacted by the Special Activities division for the Genetic Compliance Department and asked to infiltrate a Ghost Cell of fellow mods employed by a shady billionaire who promises the modified safety from both internal and external threats in exchange for their mercenary services. Rade has no choice but to comply. Among the cell members, he’s surprised to find his former team leader, Sevrina Fox, to whom he remains fiercely loyal. To prove himself to the cell, Rade takes on more wetwork even as he repudiates his old life. In muscular prose, Topping adds much emotional detail to the lives of his mercenary supersoldiers and gives their martial exploits both political and personal consequences. Bonds that form under fire become the ligaments that hold Rade’s world together. Readers looking for military SF that leans away from the hand and toward the heart will be rewarded. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary. (July)