Ambassador Series

THE SECOND-QUICKEST way to get yourself killed when dealing with Coldi people of the planet Asto is to look a superior in the eye. The Coldi people possess an instinct that demands the formation of hierarchical networks in which every person has a prescribed place. These networks provide stability. They also place one person at the top. Ezhya Palayi is that person. After having been released by his previous employers, Cory Wilson not only depends on Ezhya Palayi for his income, but he has developed an unusually friendly relationship with this man whom people on Earth would call an absolute dictator, but whose reign is benign. The third-quickest way to get yourself killed when dealing with Coldi people is when the leader you depended on for support is suddenly no longer there, as when he goes missing because the system society relies on for interstellar travel goes down. In a highly-strung hierarchical society, it won't be long before someone else tries to claim the top spot, someone less benign, someone aggressive who is likely to destabilise peace between Asto and other worlds. But by far the quickest way to get yourself killed is, as a non-Coldi outsider, to visit Asto and try to interfere in their hierarchical system, to mess with instincts you don't feel yourself, and people who are much stronger than you. Oh, and did you know that the average daytime temperature is well over 50 degrees C?

Two men went on a surfing trip in a remote area. Only one came back, accused of murdering the other. Sounds simple, right? Not quite, because the alleged murder happened on another planet, the accused is a member of the secretive Pretoria Cartel of super-rich business tycoons--with illegal off-Earth ventures--and the only person who can remotely be called a witness is an alien, the elder Abri from the Pengali Thousand Islands tribe. Diplomat Cory Wilson is asked to accompany Abri to the Nations of Earth court, but when he and his team arrive there, their contacts have been moved to different cases, their rooms are bugged and their movements restricted. No one is answering their questions, but it is when a lawyer is murdered and Cory's team captures a mysterious stalker that things get interesting. Just as well they are prepared in the usual way: alert and highly armed.

Deadly creatures, hostile climate, and that is just the scenery. For many years, mysterious things have happened on the ice world of Tamer, but when a scientist goes missing from Barresh thought to be on Tamer, Cory is forced to take the issue by the horns. Problem is, he is dealing with unexpected side effects of his fertility treatment, and, like his Coldi companions, he's lost much of his night vision, and has trouble tolerating low temperatures. Trouble is, a recent addition to his team has sent shockwaves through his group of loyal companions and things are still sorting themselves out. Not his healthy self, under-resourced, frozen and half-blind, that's not the best preparation to visit a world where humans are not at the top of the food chain, let alone dealing with enemies who will go to any lengths to hide their activities.

Never has there been more at stake for the people on Earth. The referendum question is simple: does Earth join gamra, the organisation that governs the Exchange, the FTL space travel network? While a "yes" vote would mean big changes, a "no" vote would leave Earth isolated and alone to face those waiting to fill the void, and those dark forces are already on the prowl. Cory is one of the few people who can see the big picture, not just those campaigning for the "no" vote, but the off-Earth forces that wait behind them, but he and his team went on a holiday to New Zealand and communication has been mysteriously cut off. Someone is taking control of communication channels, bringing the "yes" campaign to its knees, and by the time Cory is aware that the race is on, the only avenue open to him is a hard-hitting, negative campaign that requires him to go into the lion's den: the homelands of the obscenely rich members of the Pretoria Cartel, where gun-crazy hunters, lions and elephants are just the start of his problems.

The conflict has brewed for generations, until it has become too big to handle. Cory and his association finally return to Asto on the invitation of his father-in-law, for his official induction ceremony into the Domiri clan. They are housed in a magnificent villa overlooking a valley, away from the hustle of cities or the military base. But why can't they stay with their host? Is it for security? Is it because their host fears upsetting his household? With Thayu heavily pregnant, Cory has no appetite for adventures. But something is brewing, and listening bugs, a nightly attack and invasion are all part of the deal. Wouldn't it be nice if for once Asto's elite was upfront about the nature of the problem?

Cory has made several commitments to members of the Asto inner circles that involve young people. He needs to spend time with Thayu's thirteen-year-old son. He has also been asked to do a favour for a wheelchair-bound boy of the Azimi clan. What better to do with a couple of pre-teens than to visit the theme parks that are historic relics from the 21st century on Earth? Of course he has a hidden agenda. On a previous trip to the south of Barresh, Cory and his team found disturbing evidence that people from the former Southern California Aerospace Corps made it to Ceren about fifty years ago. He needs to find out more about them. In 2125, the city of Los Angeles is in Mexico, and the places Cory wants to visit are across the heavily guarded border in the wilderness of America Free State. While he's investigating, while he's being shadowed and occasionally threatened, while the kids are having old-fashioned fun going on rides, misappropriating the hardware and upsetting the squirrels (oops), something is about to come to a spectacular crash. It's not that the highly armed rebels of America Free State want to take back land that they consider theirs, although they do. It's not the fact that Nations of Earth president Simon Dekker hates Cory and that he's poking around in what Dekker considers his territory, although he does. It's that Earth is on the brink of war, and no one knows it yet.

The worst possible things arrive at the worst possible time. Cory is not the only person who dislikes the new president of Nations of Earth, Simon Dekker. Many people at gamra and even within Nations of Earth have similar issues. In fact, the discontent was so bad that there was talk to unseat the president. Then war arrived from space in the form of the rogue and highly organised SCAC, and people are looking to their leaders for guidance. But can a mistrusted leader provide protection? Dekker is aligned with the north American countries, who are not members of Nations of Earth and may even support SCAC. But when Cory decides that it's probably best not to wait for Nations of Earth to sort itself out to officially ask for help from gamra--after all, he's done this before--that's when the proverbial hits the fan. Because Cory's decision assumes that Earth will eventually come into line behind gamra. Or that Asto's massive army can defeat the rogue SCAC.

3 December 2114 An aid worker in Djibouti discovers a shipment of guns. Alien guns. A few years back, it took many deaths of troops and civilians to oust the Coldi (alien) mafia from Kazakhstan. They have gone to Africa. They've spread over the entire north of the continent, an area ravaged by climatic changes, war and the loss of income from fossil fuels. They have a plan. They have a cruel war lord as henchman. They are buying the support of angry locals. On the world stage, the election to replace the murdered president of Nations of Earth is looming. Politicians do not want another Kazakhstan. Cory Wilson is given a simple task: get those idiots out of there, at all cost. At all cost?

Ceren, the world that's the home of the city of Barresh, has vast swathes of untamed wilderness, most of it tribal land belonging to meta-human tribes like the Pengali. For many years, illegal organisations have seen these tribes as inroad into the lucrative gamra economy, abusing the local population with next to no payment, inflicting damage on their society. Sadly, Cory knows far too much about this, having studied Earth's history. Cory's Pengali worker Ynggi has indicated he'd wanted to visit his home tribe, giving Cory the perfect reason to check out Pengali involvement in smuggling activities. However, if he thinks Ynggi's Thousand Islands tribe is secretive and hostile, he will soon be corrected in a big way. Another tribe, the Misty Forest tribe, has made hostile overtures to the fiercely independent but peaceful Thousand Island settlements. Someone has been selling these people hostile propaganda. Not just that, they appear to have received some help from off-world and are on a mission to expand their territory by force. For Cory and his team, an anthropological excursion turns into a battle to leave the forest alive.

The bundled edition of the first three books in the Ambassador series. 1: Seeing Red - Cory Wilson is about to start his new job as representative to gamra, the alien organisation that controls the network for wormhole travel, when a political murder may well end his position before it started. 1A: The Sahara Conspiracy - Cory is asked to deal with the alien mafia on Earth, and stumbles across a dangerous plot. 2: Raising Hell - the wormhole network goes down, and Cory's friend and leader of the largest populated world Asto is caught off-world. Dangerous politics are afoot on Asto, and Cory decides to help his friend.