Book excerpt: The Solar System's fate rests on the shoulders of one, insignificant woman... Melanie Destin has attracted the wrong kind of attention. The Jovian Collective is looking for her. They have a job that only she can do, and nobody turns them down if they know what's good for them. Carson Willis has set in motion the final steps to bring down the Collective. If he succeeds, his mysterious employer is set to become the single most powerful economic power in the solar system, and an interplanetary conflict between Terra and Mars will be all but assured. Mel's job is to stop him. But she believes his plans hide a far more nefarious objective that frightens her far more than the shadow of war; one that will place the psychopathic Willis, in control of the entire solar system. But nobody will listen to her. Abandoned by her friends and allies, Mel is left to her own resources to stop Willis. With the clock running out, and her enemy closing in on her, she has one impossible chance to prevent a remorseless killer from becoming the most tyrannical despot in history.