Henry Malone’s childhood was shattered by the unexplained suicide of his father. Now a teenager, his days are spent studying to become a Neural Implant Technician for Planetary Link Corporation, helping them maintain an iron grip over his walled country and every iota of knowledge contained within—but he leads a double life. Henry’s nights are spent helping his mother wage a cyber war against them in her quest to find the truth behind his father’s death.

He’s managed to keep his two lives separate, a delicate balance that’s endangered after he repairs the neural implant of a stranger. He finds she’s in possession of illegal memories from the outside world, unauthorized knowledge of his father, and a message: speak to me later and tell no one. Henry has a choice to make—ignore the message and maintain his double-life, or answer and risk everything to uncover secrets Planetary Link would kill to keep buried.

~ Excerpt ~ 

A passing trainee twisted her face at him as if he’d slapped her. “Oh, it’s fine! I haven’t hurt the little men trapped in there.” He rolled his eyes. As much as Henry loathed the Gulf Market’s economics­of­popularity, the truth was, it wasn’t only other people who made money off his father’s death. Henry and his mother made a sizable amount themselves and it disgusted him to no end. They had a decent

chunk at the start of his father’s mission, but when The Plink NEXt vanished, the shares poured in.

People loved a tragedy.

The morning after it happened, John Alford checked his mom’s account on her behalf. He immediately had to sit down. All the zeroes crushed him into the Malone’s living room couch. By the end of the month, there were so many digits in Val Malone’s account, she and Henry had become the richest non­corporate family in the market. Of course, Alford did well too.

Henry’s arms shoved the Malone Center door. It stayed put. The red box to its left buzzed at him. He paid his two shares and angrily threw the doors open. Once outside, his legs took him wherever they wanted. It didn’t matter. He only wanted to get away from Recuzzi’s office before he did anything else stupid. Hopefully, the auditor would be lenient.

He cursed himself for letting his temper get the better of him again.

Maybe he should have listened to Recuzzi, rather than attack him. All the stuff about Scott Malone aside, the man had a point—it wasn’t too late for Henry to change concentration from systems to piloting. ICAP would be more likely to excuse Henry’s temper tantrums if his piloting test scores were as good as Recuzzi claimed they were. They always needed good pilots. He’d probably get assigned to a mission sooner too. Lost in thought, he didn’t notice himself cutting through a line of students waiting at a knowledge kiosk and, in his irritation, shouldered one of them by accident. She knocked into the student in front of her, who then stepped too close to the kiosk as it transmitted a Plink ­approved data ration authorized for someone else. The security officer posted next to the kiosk snapped to life and quickly gave the encroacher a rifle butt to the nose.

No warning. No request to step back.

The trainee landed on his hind­end, blood tracing from his nostrils. He looked at the gray-

clad Sec officer and apologized, then immediately went to the infirmary. Henry saw the whole thing. It put him in a worse mood.

About the Author

M. Stephen Stewart

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

M. Stephen Stewart is a graduate of Indiana University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. He makes his home in Indianapolis with his wife and two dogs. In his spare time, Matt is an avid sports fan, gamer, and reader, who loves to connect with new people. You can usually find him around town with his wife, exercising, or in front of his computer working on a new project.

~ Giveaway ~  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This event is brought to you by