Book excerpt: It’s 2053, and the US has long since genetically engineered life successfully. “Moreaus,” humanoid and animal hybrids, and “frankensteins,” genetically manipulated humans, live as second-class citizens. The Moreau Quartet: Volume Two brings together two of S. Andrew Swann’s novels set in the Moreau universe. In Emperors of the Twilight: Evi is a frankenstein—the next step beyond human, her physiology bioengineered to make her the best Agency special operative in the business. When she’s forced to go on the run from an unidentified hit team ready to destroy a skyscraper just to take her out, Evi’s only hope is to evade her stalkers long enough to make contact with her superiors. But she soon discovers that even the Agency may not be able to save her. In Specters of the Dawn: A moreau of rabbit stock, Angel Lopez is the last survivor of a Cleveland street gang. A tough street fighter in search of a haven, she’s come to “tolerant” San Francisco only to find that even the old-fashioned kind of humans aren’t keen on moreaus. Still, she thinks she’s found a home and safety until Byron the fox barges into her life, dragging her into the deadly underground of information-peddling, and a series of confrontations that may blow not just San Francisco but the whole planet wide open.