THE ASSASSIN SERIES
Al Lancaster is a shipwrecked tech scavenger
who wakes up from Suspense on the auction block of Hercules Station in the Alien-run Markan star system, light years distant from Earth. The only Human in
a star-traveling galactic culture where ancient Guilds of Trade, Assassins and
Spies train people to serve Alien masters, Al finds that survival depends on
his human predatory instincts. He becomes an industrial thief, bounty hunter
and sometimes “hit man” for Alien merchants, a job that deeply troubles him as
a Zen Buddhist. Hope flares briefly when he falls in love with the Alien
cat-woman Delo Quar Anken. But then Markan system is threatened by the Messiah of
Death, a plasma cloud being that literally cannot be killed. Although Al discovers a way to 'defeat' the Messiah, he finds the ‘normal society’ of Markan to be almost as deadly as the plasma cloud Alien. All too soon an Alien master criminal infects the system's memorynet machines with a 'mind virus' that turns users of memory crystals violently insane. Since memory crystals are the only thing that is ‘free’ in a galactic Trade culture focused on ‘paying for what you get’, this threatens the Alien-run culture of Markan. Al, Delo and his assassin buddies fight the 'mind virus' outbreak and discover the sector dominant Aliens of the Ketchetkeel species are involved in the 'mind virus' trade. When Delo and their five Dino babies are threatened with murder by the crime syndicate, Al and Delo go on a Norge Honor Fight to take out the Alien crime boss. Al's next adventure in Human Assassin involves the arrival of a Human starship filled with a load of corporate CEOs as greedy as the Aliens of Markan! Will he kill fellow Humans assigned to him as a Target by Alien merchants? And what group of Aliens is using the Human CEOs for their own purposes? Markan star system has the answers, but finding them may cost him his life!