An Exchange of Hostages

A promising young surgeon, Andrej Koscuisko has come, with great reluctance, to study at a military orientation center adrift in black space. Against his will, he will train here to serve as a "Ship's Inquisitor" -- a vocation that runs counter to his deepest moral convictions. During his tenure, Andrej will earn the devotion of his personal slave. He will gain the grudging respect of the Station Administration. He will make a deadly enemy of his fellow student. He will learn a frightening truth about himself. And ultimately, he will be forced to sacrifice all that he holds dear... ** Under Jurisdiction torture isn't about truth. It's about terror. The Jurisdiction's Bench has come to rely on the institutionalized atrocities of the Protocols to maintain its control of an increasingly unstable political environment. When Andrej Koscuisko, a talented young doctor, reports to orientation as a Ship's Inquisitor he will discover in himself something far worse than a talent for inflicting grotesque torments on the Bench's enemies. He will confront a passion for the exercise of the Writ to Inquire whose intensity threatens to consume him utterly. As he struggles to find some thread of justice and compassion under the Law, as he fights to hang on to what remains to him of his sanity, he will make powerful enemies who are eager to use his knowledge, his empathy, his passion against anyone who challenges the Bench. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).