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finalist for the AnLab Reader's Choice Award

Welcome to Greeve. A sun-drenched backwater world, where people earn their keep from the sea. It's nowhere important, far from any of Mankind's petty politics and intrigues. Few of its residents are more familiar than old John, who's been fishing its waters for decades. He keeps to himself, mostly. Nobody really knows him. No one knows where he came from. But how dangerous can he be?

Then another off-worlder settles in, with no apparent goal other than devoting the rest of his days to local drugs and local women. Old John is horrified to recognize him at once. How dangerous can Old John be? As dangerous as any man alive...

This story was originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2015. Read this novella for free at the author's website (PDF).

Finalist for the AnLab Reader's Choice Award

The woman in the pod has just asked him:"How long do you need me to have been your wife?" Draiken considers the contorted syntax. Not how long would you like to be married, or how long are we supposed to have been married, but how long do you need me to have been your wife, a construction that only fits this one situation, a contract to lie. And this lie will help the former spy get revenge on his past masters.

This story was originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, October 2016. Read this novella for free at Analog (PDF).

finalist for the AnLab Reader's Choice Award

Draiken and Thorne, having both been imprisoned and tortured by the machiavellian organization for which they once worked, now seek vengeance by means of destroying their former employers. But in order to obtain information necessary to achieve their goal, Draiken agrees to be locked into a prison from which there is ony one way to escape; if he succeeds in solving the mystery of how to escape, he will win the release of all the prisoners and the information he requires. But the prison cell has technology which distorts his senses, making an escape seem impossible.

This story was originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January/February 2018. Read this novella for free at Analog (PDF).

finalist for the AnLab Reader's Choice Award

Still on his path of seeking the destruction of his former employers, Draiken engages in surveillance of prosecutor Andrea Cort, whom he believes has ties to his targets. But she is aware that he's up to something, and he may end up a casualty of her own machinations.

This story was originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2018. Read this novella for free at Analog (PDF).

Draiken, with Stang's help, is on a mission to capture a deadly enforcer/killer who works for a crime boss on a space station. But who are the mysterious clients waiting for delivery of the hostage on a nearby asteroid, and why does Draiken believe that the killer will be willing to cooperate with him?

This novella was a Finalist for the Analog Readers' Awards and was first published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact in January/February 2019.

Read this story for free at Analog.

Analog Anlab Readers Award Finalist Novella

Far-future espionage operative John Draiken, after a long career, instead of retiring to enjoy the fruits of his high-paying but brutal job, has decided that his previous employer needs to be wiped out for its evil work in mind control on the galaxy's populace. His recently-acquired associate and companion, Delia Stang, is hanging out on a backwater hellhole planet for seemingly no reason - but where is Draiken? And if he's dead, how will his vengeance be fulfilled?

This novella originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, September-October 2020. Read it for free at the publisher's website.