In the rigid empire of Tellurian Pharmaceuticals, science and profit have fused into something far colder than mere ambition. Dr. Ezekiel Stonely's radiation-grown "clear quill" proves that a revolutionary crop can be produced at astonishing speed and without traceable evidence, but the real breakthrough is the secrecy surrounding it. On the industrial world of Deka, hydroponic farms, laboratories, animal enclosures, and hidden disposal systems form a vast covert machine, while Graves and Fairchild fret over statistical anomalies, the Galactic Patrol, and the need to disguise murders as accidents caused by a loose atomic vortex. That same vortex brings Vortex Blaster Dr. Neal Cloud to Dekanore III, where he is already scarred by the loss of his wife and children and now faces a new, inexplicable wave of deaths. A pirate attack on his liner, a damaged flitter, and a string of suspicious delays convince him the danger is no accident. As he investigates, young lovers Robert Ryder and Jacqueline Comstock stumble into the company's hidden trap, are seized by Fairchild and Graves, and learn too late that they know a deadly secret. Trapped alive and awaiting a staged death, they become the emotional heart of a tense thriller of corporate conspiracy, hard science, and ruthless survival. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
