Escape from Conatus

Decades of interstellar history are a lie.

One assassin will risk everything to prove it.

Anara has never questioned an order. As a covert operative for the Democracy, she eliminates threats to the interstellar state. Cleanly, quietly, without hesitation. Her latest mission should be no different: encounter a man on his morning walk, poison him, jog away.

But her target is a middle-aged college professor. An Incepti, like her—one of a scattered people whose homeworld was destroyed in the Cataclysm, the worst war crime in galactic memory. And he's a survivor of it.

How could he be a threat?

The answer shatters everything Anara believes. Now she must keep him alive long enough to share a truth that could reshape the galaxy. The Democracy's forces hunt them across star systems. Squadrons at every jump point. Soldiers on every transport. Spies on every world.

One mistake could doom billions. Because if the professor dies, the truth dies with him‥. and the lies that started the last interstellar war will ignite the next one.

For readers who love Arkady Martine's political intrigue, Lois McMaster Bujold's resourceful protagonists, and the galaxy-spanning stakes of Peter Hamilton. Look inside to meet Anara.