AMBERGRIS: 239 Manzikert Avenue, Apartment 525. Two dead bodies lie on a dusty floor. One corpse is cut in half, the other is utterly unmarked. Only one is human.

Ambergris is occupied, ruined and rotting. Its buildings are crumbling, or mutating into moist and hostile new life forms. The population is brought to its knees by narcotics, detention camps and arbitrary acts of terror. And for motives unknown, the new masters of the city want this bizarre case closed. Now. With no leads and one week to conclude his investigation, Detective John Finch is about to find himself in the cross-hairs of every spy, rebel, informer and traitor in town. And what he discovers will change Ambergris forever...