The death of a child creates a wound that never heals
New Flanders, Earth. One of the last rural havens in a solar system controlled by militant mega-corporations. Jenny and her five-year-old son Finn live there in peace. But when their colony is plundered by off-world bandits to steal their blue poppies – a crop with mystical properties – Finn is gunned down in the crossfire.
A devastated Jenny builds armor plating around her heart, abandoning New Flanders to enter a life of interstellar crime, and transforming into ‘Pirate Jenny’ -- the most ruthless and feared outlaw in the system. A legend she never asked for. Living for nothing more than quick cash, rented intimacy, and the adrenaline rush of the next score.
She moves from port to port in her battered ship, a long-haul trucker on the cold dead highways of space. She half-hopes the authorities will catch up to her, send her to that big sleep – if only anyone was half-good enough to get their hands on her.
But five years after Finn’s death, Jenny discovers the latest contraband she’s transporting – a non-descript metal suitcase – is a game changer. Inside is some kind of alien ore, containing technology with Godlike properties that could shape the destiny of humankind for good or ill. A jackpot ticket to the kind of wealth that would allow Jenny to vanish off the grid forever.
Adversaries begin noosing-in on all sides – a government that wants her dead, corrupt cops, double-dealing fellow pirates, and the powerful trillionaire who wants his suitcase back. Jenny gets a taste of the power she’s shepherding, after the suitcase is compromised and something sinister begins to take over her ship.
But Jenny doesn’t take any of the off-ramps fate lays out for her. Because that suitcase may also contain something she never expected – salvation.
Mark Rogers is a writer and artist whose literary heroes include Charles Bukowski, Willy Vlautin, and Charles Portis. He lives in Baja California, Mexico with his Sinaloa-born wife, Sofia. His award-winning travel journalism for USA Today and other media outlets has brought him to 56 countries. His crime novels have been published in the U.S and UK. Uppercut, his memoir of moving to Mexico, is published by Cowboy Jamboree Press. NeoText publishes his Tijuana series and Gray Hunter series.
Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby are screenwriters best known for their work on Children of Men (for which they were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay) and Marvel's Iron Man. Their other work includes First Snow, which was also directed by Fergus, Cowboys & Aliens, and The Last Vermeer. They are the creators and executive producers of the TV series The Expanse, which debuted on Syfy in December 2015. Currently, they are adapting Sony PlayStation’s God of War for Amazon TV.
