Illegal drug smuggling is a huge and persistent problem between the League and the Metazah Republic, especially in the Lost Angels sector which borders it. Matters reach a head when the niece of the sector chairperson and her fiancee die from it the night of her graduation. The Sector Senator, at the behest of the Chair of the Lost Angels Governance Board, demands a full investigation of why such a tragedy should occur with special attention to the failure of League Intellgence and the Patrol to prevent it.Things turn sour when Micah and his team arrive in Lost Angels. There they find a labyrinth of forced regulations, obscene taxes and suppression of the hard-working populace to the benefit of the politicians there. Worse, the investigation is nothing more than an excuse to eviscerate League Intelligence and shut it down.Working under the garble and with no support, the team falls afoul of the Patrol Rangers, the most elite law-enforcement officers within the League. In order to avoid prison, or worse, Micah must make allies of the Rangers who hate them, trace the crimes to their source and conquer his suddenly-resurrected personal demons, all without losing his life or the lives of his teammates.