AFTER THIS THE DARK is dialog-driven, tightly paced, and populated with memorable characters. Assigned the relatively mundane task of finding a teenaged girl gone missing in the crime-scarred region surrounding the Octagon, Simonjaq is introduced by detective Ray Ivankowicz to the world of an intergovernmental committee called Excom, where putting down an insurrection aimed at invading the camp and eliminating its inmates is trumped by the threat of eco-terrorism on a scale never before experienced. Counting his resources on one hand – a renegade government operative, two beautiful young women, and a half-dozen squatters from a nearby AIDS colony – Simonjaq leads his band to a hidden entrance into the impregnable Octagon to track down and destroy six trucks laden with the bioactive mercury compound. If they succeed against long odds, they may have one last chance of escaping with their lives.