Taken from their planet and their century, they are…the Lost Soldiers. Some of the hijacked Twentieth Century troops known as the Lost Soldiers have made planetfall on R'Bak and are working to establish their base there, but their commander, Major Murphy, has a problem. He knows there are weapons and equipment caches that haven't been activated yet by their immediate enemies-the Satraps-although they are moving as quickly as they can to get to the caches so they can turn those weapons upon their new off-world foes. Victor Allen Thomas-"Vat" to his friends-was escaping an arms deal gone bad when the helicopter carrying him crashed and he was hijacked by the mysterious Ktor. While he had military experience, he had left the military years before under suspicious circumstances. With a general discharge in his past, he shouldn't even have been in Somalia to begin with. As an arms dealer, Vat has plenty of experience learning new languages and cultures, and he is used to cutting risky deals and making unusual alliances. Murphy is counting on Vat to find the equipment caches-his 'pearls of great price'-before the Satraps can use the weapons against the Lost Soldiers. But Vat has never been good at forming relationships. He's going to have to overcome that failing, because there are only two possible outcomes for his mission. Either he finds the pearls of great price that will allow the Terrans to securely establish themselves on R'Bak, or-if he doesn't-the future of Murphy's Lawless isn't merely bleak; it's likely to be nonexistent.
