Avery Cates is a City Lord, but the world's still ending. When he comes across a key piece of information, he hatches a bold plan to reboot the world - but the Archangel's army is camped outside, and they're coming in one way or another. Part Three of the new serialized Avery Cates novel 'The Burning City'.

The sequel to THE SHATTERED GEARS containing the previously published novellas THE NEW WORLD, THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN, THE LONG SIEGE, and THE DARK HUNT. Avery Cates has his city, but being a City Lord isn't what he thought it would be. Beset by problems, with the Archangel and his army of psionics marching inexorably towards him, he knows his one chance is to cobble together the resources to try and take Cochtopa, the secret System Security Force installation that might contain the tech and data he needs to reboot humanity and defeat the Archangel. Cates has his team: Techie Ezekial Marko, old-school System genius; Spectacular Dan, the most powerful Tele-K he's ever seen; Moreau, former Stormer and ultra-reliable enforcer; The Pale, silent precognitive monk; and Lucinda Barowel, former Undersecretary and now his partner. They're ready to make their play. But first, they'll have to get out of the city alive.

Avery Cates has a problem. In a shrinking, sterile world, the Archangel is marching his army to Castelvecchio, and Cates has the information he needs to access the last remnants of the awesome technology of the despise System. He’s made his Devil’s Bargain with Lucinda Barowel, and now he knows the hitch: In order to get to the machinery of war left behind at Cochtopa, he’s going to need a boat—and guns. His ersatz army is quickly running out of ammunition in a world where the factories stopped working long ago. When he learns that a local criminal has been hoarding guns and ammo as insurance against the coming apocalypse, Cates heads off to make a deal. And if he can’t make a deal, he’ll have to use every last resource he has left to secure that weaponry for himself—and hope his bargain with Barowel doesn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

In this sequel to THE SHATTERED GEARS, Avery Cates is finding life as a City Lord not what it's cracked up to be, and is almost relieved when the woman he stole the city from, Lucinda Barowel, returns with a proposal. Partnering with a former Joint Council Undersecretary isn't a comfortable spot for Avery, and it leads him to some dark places -- and one dark place in particular he'd rather not have to remember. But Cates knows the current state of humanity -- dying in a shut-down world -- is on his shoulders. He also knows he might not survive his struggle against the Archangel, the omnipotent psionic who's marching a genocidal army, intent on ending the world for good. Cates sees that as his penance, and he's okay with it. @page { margin: 0.79in } p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; color: #000000; line-height: 115%; orphans: 2; widows: 2 } p.western { font-family: "Liberation Serif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-US } p.cjk { font-family: "SimSun"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: zh-CN } p.ctl { font-family: "Lucida Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }

The fourth novella making up the novel "The Burning City." Avery Cates is making his play for the ocean and the secret cache of System tech and data that might just bring humanity back from the brink. But nothing ever goes as planned, and when the Gunner finds himself alone in the dark with an unexpected ally, he has to play an epic game of cat and mouse.