Young SecOps operatives 06 and 22 were about to be sent out for their first military engagement. Just a few years earlier, they were child refugees of a corporate civil war; Stellaxis modified them into supersoldiers.

But 06 and 22 have escaped their prison barracks and entered a city they can barely remember. In the dead of winter, they sleep in an abandoned shipping container and scavenge for resources.

The Director of the Stellaxis supersoldier program knows that 06 and 22 are gone, where they are, and that she has no easy way of retrieving them. The Director also knows that if she sends anyone after them, there will be a bloodbath—or at least a great deal of bad press.

But all operatives’ days are numbered. 06 and 22 must make a terrible choice: their freedom or each other.

In Nicole Kornher-Stace’s newest addition to her popular Firebreak series, Flight & Anchor is a riveting visit to an all-too-plausible future.