Operation Grendel

Raymin Dahl covers military affairs for a living, and he has long hoped for an assignment that would make his career. It seems to arrive when secret negotiations are set to convene on a distant, tropical moon. Their result could hand five settled worlds, home to six hundred million people, over to a merciless adversary.

Before the talks can begin, Captain Ansell Sterling, Dahl's commanding officer, takes a wound that proves fatal. Dahl can no longer simply observe. He is instructed to carry out the operation himself, relying on the artificial intelligence built into Sterling's communications bracelet. To do it, he must pass as the captain, a decorated Marine and an expert in psychological warfare. The AI's aims may not be what they seem, and it could be steering him toward a choice he does not understand.

Dahl believes he is running a single mission, but other covert activity is already underway around him, and his own assignment is only one part of it.