Aries at Dawn

“It was either promote you or fire you,” Jeff’s boss had said.

For the past 18 months, Jeff had a plan. Work harder than everyone else. Amaze Unified Shipping management with his dedication, his productivity. His thrilling mastery of the Business. The result would be a jump-start of his career like a solar flare off the far side of the sun. Great plan. But it wasn't working.

Instead, Jeff has been stuck as a part-time supervisor for two years, balancing one simple, relentless equation—productivity. He hops around catwalks and package cars at 4am like a cheerleading monkey to inspire his loaders, but their numbers are hopeless. His manager threatens him daily in at least two different languages and it’s looking like he’ll die strapped into this job. His fiancée seems to be rethinking the marriage thing.

Out of nowhere, fate strikes like warped lightning. A Unified Feeder driver causes an accident and Jeff is promoted to handle the fallout. The reason for his promotion is vague but the opportunity is not. He seizes the chance like the only rope out of hell. But there’s a catch to this wonderful promotion. The bastard who possibly fell asleep at the wheel and who definitely ran a Unified Shipping eighteen-wheeler over a school bus is his potential brother-in-law, David Floyd. The idiot.

As days pass, each new revelation shoots him further and further away from preserving his career and his family. And then people start dying.