Kylara Vatta, risk-taking, rule-breaking, can-do heroine of Trading in Danger, is back in businessβthe kind thatβs anything but usualβin the new military science fiction adventure by ace action storyteller Elizabeth Moon.
The exciting military career she hoped for never got off the groundβbut Ky Vatta ended up seeing plenty of combat when she took the helm of one of the commercial transport vessels in her familyβs fleet . . . and steered it into a full-blown war. Now the lessons she learned in that trial by fire are about to pay off: because this time, the war has come to her. To be exact, someone unknown has launched a full-throttle offensive against Vatta Transport Ltd., Kyβs fatherβs interstellar shipping empire. In short order, most of Kyβs family is killed, and subsequent attacks sever vital lines of communication, leaving Ky fighting, in every sense, to survive.
Determined to identify the ruthless mystery enemy and avenge her familyβs name, Ky needs not only firepower but information. And she gets both in spadesβfrom the band of stranded mercenaries she hooks up with, from her black- sheep cousin, Stella, whoβs been leading a secret life, and from Stellaβs roguish ex-lover, Rafe. Together they struggle to penetrate the tangled web of political intrigue thatβs wreaking havoc within InterStellar Communications, whose effective operation their own livelihoodsβand perhaps livesβdepend on.
But the infighting proves to be infectious, and it isnβt long before Kyβs hired military muscle are turning their suspicions on the enigmatic Rafe, whose wealth of knowledge about ISCβs clashing factions and startling new technologies has begun to make him smell like a rat . . . or a mole. With swift, violent destruction a very real possibility, the last thing Ky needs is a crew divided against itselfβand sheβs prepared to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that Vatta stays in business, as well as in one piece.
What sheβs not prepared for is the shocking truth behind the terrorβ and a confrontation with murderous treachery from a source as unexpected as it is unrelenting.
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