Daniel W. Rue

It’s been 20 years since the first manned mission to Mars discovered a human fossil on the Red Planet. Now, the democracies of the West are buckling under a new crisis emerging from Russia: 10,000 liberated Builders, now fully grown and no longer protected by the UN, are forced to flee. One country is ready to receive the descendants of Xinth: the Special Administrative Region of South Africa, where a lone Builder, Hortat, is running for president. The situation is unprecedented and around the world is giving rise to as much distress as it is hope for a better future for humanity.

To all appearances, Dan Chase is a harmless retiree in Vermont with two big mutts and a grown daughter he keeps in touch with by phone. But most 60-year-old widowers don't have multiple driver's licenses, savings stockpiled in banks across the country, and a bugout kit with two Beretta Nanos stashed in the spare bedroom closet. Most have not spent decades on the run.