The fight is never over, and the board is always changing. In the isolated prison colony known as the Block, the exiled leader of the Protectorate enacts plans a decade in the making. Across the Protectorate itself, revelations about social engineering and the mass murder of citizens disguised as disease outbreaks have given rise to new political factions. Unrest is building toward a breaking point across their previously uniform and complacent society. Deathwatch agent Rebecca Park and her team have no choice but to ride the leading edge of the brewing revolution. Tasked with damping the heat of growing chaos and putting out fires when those efforts fail, Beck is pushed to the limits of her creativity and ingenuity--and beyond. Faced with an enemy bent on seizing back power and a population of citizens torn between rediscovered freedoms and the traditions that have kept them alive, only the thin black line of the Deathwatch can keep these forces from tearing everything apart.