Book excerpt: The critically acclaimed author of Article 5 and Metaltown brings her trademark action, romance, and frightening prescience to this tale of high seas adventure.For too long our people have suffered, plagued by overcrowding, disease, and lack of work. We have only just survived for too long. Now we must take the next step and thrive.Pacifica.A new beginning. Blue skies. Green grass. Clear ocean water. An island paradise like the ones that existed before the Melt.A lucky five hundred lottery winners will be the first to go, the first to leave their polluted, dilapidated homes behind and start a new life. It sounds perfect. Like a dream.The only problem? Marin Carey spent her childhood on those seas and knows there's no island paradise out there. She's corsario royalty, a pirate like her father and his father before him, and she knows a con when she sees one. So where are the First Five Hundred really going?