Synopsis: Captain Athalos Steldan knows too much. Now he's on the run from powerful forces who want him silenced. He illegally jumps ship on the planet Chirkun, plunging at once into a twilight underworld of vice i a last-ditch attempt to escape his attackers. But the Concordat Naval intelligence has strict orders to bring Steldan back - dead or alive. Headed by Lieutenant Ron Gray - and by Commander James Tyler, a professional assassin who can kill with a smile on his face - the forces converge on Steldan, driving him deeper into the nightmarish world of City-South. There, among the devastation caused by a reactor fuel mega-blast, Steldan is cornered by a beautiful bounty hunter who comes to believe in him and his desperate mission to clear his name. But first Steldan must prove his innocence to the Concordat... and expose the top-level, multistrata conspiracy that hungers to obliterate him and his dangerous knowledge at any cost. -Blurb backcover Avon 1985 edition.