2029. Fentanyl, nitazene, captagon and synthetic poisons kill millions. As the body count grows, frustrated value engineer Rave Maps takes direct action infiltrating drug labs and cartel strongholds. Canadian NC3 cybercrime agency chief Kate Tong urges Rave to pull herself together and join the first tourist excursion to Mars aboard a Chinese ship serving as Tong's eyes and ears. The journey provides Rave one desperate chance to destroy her Digital Twin before game-changing AI technology falls into the wrong hands.
Rave cannot rest until she untangles her twisted inner spiritual terrain racing from Mallorca to Steamboat Springs, Shanghai, and Cozumel before departing Hainan Island for Mars. Personal monsters stand at the door waiting for her to invite them in for tea and a conversation.
Would you open that door?
2029. Fentanyl, nitazene, captagon and synthetic poisons kill millions. As the body count grows, frustrated value engineer Rave Maps takes direct action infiltrating drug labs and cartel strongholds. Canadian NC3 cybercrime agency chief Kate Tong urges Rave to pull herself together and join the first tourist excursion to Mars aboard a Chinese ship serving as Tong's eyes and ears. The journey provides Rave one desperate chance to destroy her Digital Twin before game-changing AI technology falls into the wrong hands.
Rave cannot rest until she untangles her twisted inner spiritual terrain racing from Mallorca to Steamboat Springs, Shanghai, and Cozumel before departing Hainan Island for Mars. Personal monsters stand at the door waiting for her to invite them in for tea and a conversation.
Would you open that door?
One tap on the screen was all it took to kill Tyler Sindal.
Tyler did not know he was dead yet. It would be two more days before six blue M30 Oxy pills he had ordered on Whisper would arrive in his parentsâ mailbox.
The $5 fake pills were mixed from synthetic drug analog powders developed in a filthy warehouse in a rundown neighborhood in Shanghai. On the Mexican island of Cozumel, in what appeared to be a bland retail storefront next to a gas station that was part of a whitewashed strip mall, was where the analog powders wound up, and where several workers put them through a mechanical pill press. This poison machine was capable of processing two hundred thousand fake pills per hour.
Finished packs of pills were tightly wrapped in carbon paper (to circumvent drug-sniffing dogs), plastic, and tape, ready for shipment to the United States.
Tyler did not know any of this. Didnât all pills look and work the same? Heâd watched adults take every manner of pill for a variety of ailments his entire life. School friends enjoyed pointing to drug emojis and slang terms and decoding them:
Adderall: train emoji, âAddyâ
Captagon: sailboat emoji
Cocaine: snow, snowflake emoji
Fentanyl: âChinatown,â âChina white,â âFetty,â âbluesâ
Heroin: âRoofing tarâ
Mushrooms: mushroom emoji
Methamphetamine: âCrystal,â âmethâ
OxyContin: âHillbilly heroin,â âoxy,â âbuttons,â âM-30â
Percocet: capital letter âP,â âperc,â âblueberriesâ or blueberry emoji
Xanax: School bus emoji, âcarts,â âsharks,â âyellowâ
A drug that was highly potent would be labeled with a bomb emoji. If there was a large batch available, it would be signaled with a chocolate chip emoji. It seemed normal to Tyler. Everyone knew about this.
Tylerâs back had been bothering him from a biking injury, and a friend told him about cheap pain pills heâd gotten online. Tyler accessed the dark web via a TOR browser, swiped past weapons, gaming, and every variety of porn until he located âbuttons.â A couple of clicks later his order was in. Six pills, thirty bucks.
The pills would arrive in a plain brown envelope resembling other packages of household items his parents often received.
Two days later the envelope was in the mailbox when Tyler came home from school. As usual, his parents were still at work. He took the package upstairs and opened it in his bedroom. He bit into half of one pill, looking forward to immediate pain relief, hoping to stretch his supply. Tyler sat at his desk, turning his attention to his computer, reaching for the keyboard as he swallowed. He felt odd instantly.
Something seemed off, he was short of breath. He peered out his window, looking up at the early evening sky, noting the steady, red glow of Mars. His eyes widened in puzzlement at what he was experiencing and kept on rolling up into his skull as he slumped down in his chair.
It was 8:00 AM the next morning before his groggy, overworked parents began wondering why Tyler had not come down for breakfast. When his mom went upstairs to check on him, he appeared asleep at his desk, crumpled over his open laptop.
A loop of Halle Bailey singing âFor the First Timeâ was playing on the computer. The song was from The Little Mermaid, which Tyler had watched while babysitting his young sister the day before.
Tylerâs mom dropped her mug. Coffee splattered across the wood floor. Mouth open, eyes wide, she stared at her son. She couldnât quite catch her breath, nor could she process what she was seeing. She wanted to scream; she tried. No sound came.
Eventually she managed a whimper that turned into a long, tortured wail. A horrible sound, like something from a wounded animal.
It was the first week of summer 2029, and it would have been Tylerâs fourteenth birthday.
But he didnât make it.
Alden Globeâs third instalment of the Maps Private Value Thriller books, Daughter of Mars, is a vibrant tale of emotion, duty, and purpose. It follows Rave Maps, an incredibly intelligent and capable value engineer, as she processes the loss of her nephewâthe latest casualty of counterfeit pharmaceuticals laced with toxic levels of illegal opioids. As she teases apart the complex web of suppliers and distributors, Maps discovers how deep the historical roots of the drug trade run, learning that the very infrastructure of the United States was developed on the back of opium traders. Determined to make a significant disruption in the chain and avenge her innocent nephew, she finds herself drawn into this dark world of cartels and pill mills, of people addicted to power and substances and everything in between. Her dedication to minimising the life lost to these lethal prescription decoys even takes her to Mars, where she proves just how far sheâs willing to go in her crusade.
Mr. Globe skilfully weaves historical fact through the narrative, educating the audience as he pulls them through the fictitious events of the not-too-distant future. His prose excels in her descriptions of the characters grappling with complex emotions, particularly those of grief and rage. He gives ample consideration to how grief and rage are two sides of a heavy coin, and provides a realistic event to serve as an inciting moment for Maps. The narrative drags at times when it relies too heavily upon exposition, but remains reasonably well-paced throughout. At times, it felt a little too simple for Maps and her friends and allies to operate so swiftly and complete their missions with such ease. When fighting does break out, or the stakes are raised for the success of a single mission, Maps often achieves her goals anyway with minimal delay, making her a slightly less relatable character whose only struggles seem to be emotional. However, the decision to make Mapsâ motivation for wreaking havoc on the copycat prescription pills trade not just borne of grief, but of guilt as well, was a clever device from Mr. Globe that was employed well.
Overall, this book received no more than three stars due to a lack of polish. The premise and world-building were solid, the research was sound, the writing flowed reasonably well, and the book was fairly free from grammatical errors. Unfortunately, there were portions that lacked an essential touch of realism to capture the readerâs imagination. The narrative as a whole relied heavily upon the audience believing that the two primary women would have the expertise, connections, and finesse to attack the critical points of a centuries-old behemoth of a trade. Mr. Globeâs passion for the subject shines through in his prose and he certainly illuminates the great risk posed to our society should these toxic pills continue to find their way into peopleâs hands. But while the heart of the story rang true, I would recommend this book only to people who are willing to suspend their belief to follow a vengeance-fuelled, high-flying, interplanetary adventure.