SECRETS KILL. PERFECTION DESTROYS. Beneath an irradiated wasteland, the last of humanity has survived 400 years in an experimental colony built to last 50. Above is the scour - a barren desert of toxic sand and fallen cities. Exposed in the scour, nothing can survive... until now. Chief Investigator Linus Halla has had enough of pain and death in cramped, rusted corridors. It's time to transfer his title and duties to his last remaining deputy. But when a young boy is pulled from the scour, Linus is forced reopen the horrific case that nearly destroyed him and his marriage a decade before. Who is this boy? How did he survive? And why does he seem so familiar? Deputy Ivan Finn thinks he's ready for anything. With less than a year under his belt, he's done it all, seen it all - from murder, water riots, and glitchy computers to a gender-switching sapioid with a few decades too many on her feet. Ivan is content with shots at the local bar and quiet evenings at home with the bartender who runs it. Searching for clues to the boy's identity, Linus and Ivan will travel the depth and breadth of the old colony, confront the last vestiges of a dying society, and face a beaten people segregated by eugenics and technology, made savage by prejudice and time. The terrible truth will shatter their rusted, little world forever.