Grace Donner longs to work as a protector outside of her Cloister. But when forbidden technology results in her expulsion, Grace learns that upholding the law is anything but simple.
Port Casper is a technological megalopolis, its corporations clashing in a patent war. Inventions are commodities, inventors traded like currency. Holding a patent can make you a fortune, or make you a target. The latest rumors have traced a bullseye around Grace's oldest friend, Raj Chanho, and it's her boss with a hand on the trigger.
As Grace sinks into a world of vendettas, espionage, and forced modification, she will have to use all of her Academy-trained abilities to survive. She will have to choose between her contracts and her friends, underground technology and the law she is paid to enforce.
How much of her Cloister ethics is she willing to abandon?