Vigilante Crime

Tess Monaghan has finally made the move and hung out her shingle as a PI-for-hire, complete with an office in Butchers Hill. Maybe it's not the best address in Baltimore, but you gotta start somewhere, and Tess' greyhound Esskay has no trouble taking marathon naps anywhere there's a roof. Then, in walks Luther Beale, the notorious vigilante who five years ago shot a boy for vandalizing his car. He wants to make reparations to the kids who witnessed his crime, so he needs Tess to find them.

Welcome to Legacy City, America’s nightmare. Poverty and pain are the norm, the local cops and politicians are corrupt, the crime families rule with an iron fist, and they are all profiting from a ravenous new drug called “The Trip”, which has been tearing its way through lower-class neighborhoods. Just when all hope seems lost, a real-life vigilante shows up and begins raising Hell one block at a time. His name…The Illegal.

Tiffany knows what happened. Esper has fallen to the darkness within her. Rather than fleeing to safety, she escapes the presence of Dark Esper to find a way to bring back the woman she thinks of as a mother. But before she can drag Esper down the road to redemption, she'll first have to wade into hell to find her. Meanwhile, Esper is being hunted by the latest in a long string of bounty hunters and assassins looking to collect the astronomical price on her head. What makes this one think she's got any better chance than all the rest that have tried and failed?

Leaving an apprentice unsupervised has never been a good idea. With Esper neglecting her duties as magical teacher, Tiffany takes her education into her own hands. Struggling with self-esteem and credibility with the universe, she resorts to trying a magical performance-enhancing drug. Of course, Esper has problems of her own. Unbeknownst to her, a crack squad of assassins is hot on her trail, and this time they're bringing twice the number of wizard-hunters along. It would be a great time for a fully-trained and capable apprentice to have her back. Wouldn't it?

The year is 2130. A young man named Alex wakes up in the middle of a field. And he has no recollection of how he got there. After saving his life from an imminent threat, a trio of ragtag vigilantes with superpowers inform him that humanity has been at war with an alien race for over 30 years, and nearly 75 percent of the human population has either been wiped out or enslaved.

In the constant war against her darker side, Esper was forced to win a daily battle for control. One loss was all it took for the roles of warden and prisoner to switch. Now, with her friends as hostages, this new Esper relies on advice from her better half to keep up the illusion that this is still the Esper they know and love. When their newly acquired base of operations gets hijacked, Esper has to balance between maintaining her cover and doing what she knows it's going to take to get her ship back.

With the capture of the Eye of Ra, Esper and her friends discover that small problems have started looking too small. When a plague breaks out on the occupied planet of Meyang, she decides it's time to see what her new ship and crew are capable of. However, the situation is more complicated than they counted on. Not only does the occupying force not want them there, the azrin living on Meyang are none too keen on interference from outsiders. But never let it be said that Esper wasn't willing to help those who refused to be helped.

When a group of homegrown attackers takes aim at cops outside a Fourth of July baseball game, black-ops specialist Jon Reznick and his daughter, Lauren, are caught in the crossfire. Jon hunts down two of the gunmen. But the last member of the group is at large and about to launch a fresh killing spree across the city. Cops are under fire, and Jon must stop this madman before more people are killed. But Jon’s renegade tactics and vigilante justice are starting to ruffle some feathers, and his friends in high places might not be able to help him anymore.

The only clue to his identity was a small medallion with the words "Lazarus Gray" stamped on it. He took that name and became one of Sovereign City's greatest heroes, forming an alliance with other lost souls like himself. Together, they are Assistance Unlimited...and now they face their greatest threats ever!

When a twin-engine Beechcraft crashes into one of Richmond’s watering holes and turns happy hour into Hell, theories run rampant. Was it terrorists who, for some reason, decided to vent their spleens on unsuspecting Richmond? Was it a statement by homegrown killers less-than-thrilled that the city still, in the 21st century, chooses to honor Confederate leaders on its most prominent avenue? The obvious answers, though, just don’t pan out. Hard-charging reporter Willie Black’s search for the truth eventually leads him to a small town on the Chesapeake....

Ana Jacobs knows the Elite and their depravity all too well. She was one of them once. Her father was a member of the Inner Circle and head of the Trinity funding the corruption of Sun City. When he learned she knew the names of those he'd hidden so well, he turned his back on her, had her kidnapped and tortured to protect his secrets. When she escapes the island and learns of her father’s death at the hands of a knife-wielding vigilante called the Nightwatchman, she returns to Sun City, vowing to use her knowledge to protect the city.

Esper made that promise. Now it's time to make good. The Cult of Ra has a flagship, and thanks to a turncoat in their ranks, Esper and her friends know where it's going to be. Better yet, they know that Pharaoh Ramesses XIII will be aboard. It's time to cut the head off the cult.

Esper has a rendezvous with a mysterious contact aboard an undersea luxury cruise ship, an exclusive submarine hotel for a cozy five-day getaway. She's going to get all the intel she needs to cut off the head of the Cult of Ra - at least that's the plan. When she first meets her contact, it's at the scene of his murder. Then someone sinks the cruise ship, trapping Esper and the other passengers with the killer. Now, Esper has to discover the killer's identity, recover any stolen intel the victim might have had on him, and keep the other passengers alive.

Esper tracks the Cult of Ra to an arms factory on a grimy colony world. With limited magical resources, they're reduced to doing their vigilante act the old-fashioned way. But when their best efforts fall short, Esper is forced to make an impossible choice. In the aftermath, Esper is going to have to reevaluate her priorities and rediscover what magic means to her. With her powers returned, so has the dark voice that haunts her day and night.

Sunshine of Your Cult is the fifth mission of Black Ocean: Mercy for Hire. It follows the exploits of a pair of do-gooder bounty hunters who care more about saving the day than getting a payday. Mercy for Hire builds on the rich Black Ocean universe and introduces a colorful cast for new and returning listeners alike. Fans of vigilante justice and heroes who exemplify the word will love this series.

The jig is up. The news is out. They finally found her. As Esper has tried to save the galaxy’s wayward children, she’s done it with the looming threat of the Convocation dogging her steps. She knows why they’re after her, even if she can’t remember the events. She’s shaken them across a dozen star systems. She’s bested their hunters the few times they’ve caught up. Now, Esper is about to face her greatest fear: the truth about what she’s done.

The world is still reeling from the devastation of the final battle between the world’s strongest metahumans. Empire City has been left in shambles as it struggles to rebuild. Overnight, the world’s metabands, mysterious bracelets that offer their owner’s superhuman powers and abilities, have all ceased working. Guilt ridden over his possible hand in all of this, the masked vigilante Midnight has hung up his cowl.

It’s 2025. Tanner Moore is at the top of his game in the high-stakes world of big technology. As C.T.O. of Paragon, the largest corporation in the world, Tanner is about to release the greatest convenience innovation in the history of eCommerce - drone delivery services to every inch of the globe. But when an interview with journalist Amy Noral is secretly recorded and published by the clickbait media, Tanner’s fall from grace is swift and brutal.

Carl Ramsey has done the unthinkable: he turned down a lucrative job. When the deed is too despicable even for outlaws like the Mobius crew, someone nasty had to be behind it. Carl and his friends decide to hunt down their potential employer and turn him over to the authorities. But as amateur vigilantes, they mire themselves in a moral quagmire of conflicts of interest. With victory (and a tidy payday) in their sights, can they live with the awful truth they uncover?

Sebastian Drake is a novelist who’s trying to come up with his next story idea. But he’s stuck. Drake receives an unexpected visit from a man interested in hiring him for a project and who thinks he has just the solution to Drake’s writing challenges. His proposition to Drake is simple: become a hired agent to investigate a cold murder case involving one of Chicago’s most powerful political families.