Going Cold

Book excerpt: Once the details of her life are sorted out and all impediments removed, Hesker takes on a new name for a new life in a new position. She heads to the stars, is reset, and all traces of her previous life are removed from her body. No one wants to carry a lifetime of mistreatment and murder with them, after all. Once she gets to the Imperium, she is ready to start afresh, and being the envoy to the imperial heirs is not a task for the faint-hearted. She is tasked with bringing boxes containing gifts to nearly a hundred worlds, and she is guarded with her own set of guardians. One of her guards is tasked with guardianship of her person, and he immediately gives her authorization to touch him for instructional purposes. What woman could refuse an invitation like that?