Lone Player

“You can lie all you want, but every lie will come back to bite you someday. They always do.”

Every citizen is marked with playing card tattoos—one for each wrist. On New Year’s Eve, two cards are drawn, and those with matching tattoos are exterminated by the Chaser Corps.

The healthy face the lottery once a year; the chronically ill are removed the moment they’re discovered. Both are justified as responsible resource management in an overpopulated country with limited supplies.

Eddie Voclain tells her family she’s training to become a Chaser. It’s the high-paying, respected career her father always wanted for her. In truth, she’s risking her life with the rebels as an illegal healer to cure her best friend’s hidden disease.

Ren McLellan tells his rebel-aligned family he’s attending school, because they’d never accept him becoming a Chaser, but he’ll do anything to save his twin sister. By joining the Corps, he’ll earn her Immunity so she can never be executed for her condition.

Together, Eddie and Ren live double lives on opposite sides to protect the same person—Margot McLellan, friend to one and sister to the other. But lies don’t last forever, and defying a ruthless system could cost them everything.