SECURITY ISSUE: Two Wars, Middle a Fence: ACT 0 Prologue, Hardcover (TWO WARS, MIDDLE A FENCE Timeline)

Hong Kong, April 2024. Twenty-eight gunmen, dressed in police tactical gear, explode outwards, executing a bloody data heist in the High Court. Fourteen hostages die. Mistakes were made.-And one of the private-security contractors who walked out of the fire is the abandoned daughter of a dead triad boss.Having lived most of her life in Hong Kong but spent her adolescence in America, it's been almost a decade since Tsai Liangmei came home with two suitcases — clothes in the red, kit in the black. A stagnated ex-cop, jetlagged, still running on an overclocked head—shorting in ways she can't explain to herself when trying to reconcile with her past. The first gig in a series was simple; being in a supporting role to escort judges, bureaucrats; airport to courthouse, three kilometers, with twenty-some prisoners awaiting charges under the National Security Law. Until the crowd thickened, communications went silent, and the city's police systems went dark under a cyberweapon called AUTOPHAGE.-96 hours was all that it took for her life to unspool. She wakes twelve days later with a bullet track along her spine, carbon monoxide scrubbed out of her lungs and barred from leaving the region. Outside her window: the city is on fire. Peaceful marches for Accountability and Transparency, from Yuen Long to Aberdeen, have curdled into water cannons and molotovs. A riot officer has pinned a fourteen-year-old to a Mong Kok sidewalk. A massacre is running on the TV from Moscow. Long enough wallowing in the mildew, grief and survivor's guilt of her Skypark apartment, it took one phone call—one opportunity, allowing her to have a fighting chance in the investigation into the High Court Incident: maybe the terrorists were gone, but their low-hanging fruit wasn't… if only it all was that simple, knowing she is on her third strike of very bad luck, during a time where being a cop in Hong Kong was persona non grata.-ACT 0 — A quiet recruitment that turns a private contractor into something the state can aim and keep from getting out of the region. An introduction to who Liangmei is, her thoughts, the people she has left. Ellroy's political noir meets Chan Ho-kei's fractured Hong Kong mosaic. Open-world crime game DNA adorned with a grounded-Cyberpunk aesthetic.-This novel series is either the worst thing you wanted to peek into, or the best thing you found by accident.Content note: Vivid descriptions of violence, firearms, terrorism, political matters, strong language and touchy mental health subjects. A standalone entry point to a planned multi-volume series.TWMAF is an unaffiliated, non-endorsed work of fiction. No connection to any game publisher, studio, or public figure. All organized-crime factions in the novel are fictional composites; resemblance to real organizations or persons is coincidental or satirical. Read more