Following a series of military clashes, Aurora and Hongzin have agreed to talks. But not long after the Chinese delegation arrives on Aurora, one of its members, Kang Batu, is found dead in a river.

 

At first, detectives Shea Delgado and Rachel Okagawa can’t rule out an accident. Kang seems to have covered his tracks in the days leading up to his death, but that’s not particularly surprising given that he was the head of Hongzin intelligence. His cuff—his personal comm device—was missing from his body and still can’t be found.

Then the trace they put on the cuff gets a hit: someone, for some reason, turned it on.

With talks cancelled and tensions between Aurora and Hongzin soaring, Shea and Rachel navigate a maze of inter-colony backchannels, blackmail, and sleeper agents as the investigation increasingly points to someone close to Shea.