Veteran Petra Arceneaux might be too damaged for duty, but she's still got a maritime mission: piloting illegal charters that install black-market bionic devices for desperate patients. When dangerous combat technology resurfaces in the body of the ship's surgeon, she races against her own failing health to find the killer before bloody history repeats.Needing help from a healthcare insider, she recruits jaded paramedic Jonathan Rowell, who's torn between affection for the victim and resentment of biohackers. Distrustful but determined, the pair uncovers links between underground and "upgrade and " parlors, a controversial biotech company, and their own troubled pasts.But as their investigation endangers Jonathan's livelihood and Petra's life, suspicion corrodes their alliance...and their chance to save near-future Baltimore from becoming a battlefield.