Four and a half centuries from now, a lethal designer drug known as Angel has become an epidemic disease, and a new breed of hero has evolved to liberate a generation doomed to be lost to its ravages.
Jarrat and Stone are captains in the paramilitary NARC -- Narcotics and Riot Control -- assigned to combat the Death's Head drug syndicate in control of the vast spaceport city of Chell.
Under the NARC code of non-involvement, each of the two men hides his deeper desire for the other. But when Stone is captured on the urban battlefield and forced into Angel addiction, Jarrat's feelings for him are his only chance for survival. The price is that their minds will remain permanently linked in an empathic bonding...
For NARC, the opportunity offered by this unique situation is too golden to pass up. To the team designing cutting-edge surveillance systems, the connection between Jarrat and Stone is a gift from jealous gods. But for the men themselves, the situation is an explosive cocktail of desire and dread, love and anger -- the struggle to survive, and a harsh question which both must answer. Will they let the department turn them into labrats in order to preserve their rank, their position, and keep on doing the job which, for each, is a burning vocation?
THE UNABRIDGED EDITION was first published in March 2004 by DreamCraft. It's 25,000+ words longer than the original GMP issue; its new jacket was designed in consultation with the author.
