The Encoded Heart: No. 3 (Durham Red S.)

The third Black Flame adventure of this well-received trilogy featuring blood-sucking vampire and sexy killing machine with attitude, Durham Red. After Xandos Dathan's abortive bid to plunge the Accord into war, Durham Red flees into the uncharted Vermin Stars in pursuit of her precious data crystals. She finds the artifacts on the orbiting library of Biblos, but the Iconoclast super-soldiers known as Omega Warriors already have her in their sights. Critically injured in the battle, Red is spirited away by servants of the mysterious Magister of Cados, and taken to his vast citadel on the planet Magadan. Red probes Magada's enigmas, and finds that her luxurious refuge is a hotbed of dark secrets and lethal power games. Not only that, but Magadan and Achmethas are linked in a bizarre mathematical symbiosis - two worlds fused into one, with only the narrowest of doorways between them. Red's freedom lies through that doorway but only the Magister holds the keys. Red must face him in order to save herself and her companions, and in doing so confront an enemy from her own distant pastÏ¿½

Peter J Evans has over 400 pieces of published work to his name, ranging from the back covers of videos to big articles about Serious Stuff. He has produced regular columns for gaming magazines, short fiction, long fiction, reviews, interviews and a sticker book. His SF novel, Mnemosyne's Kiss, was published in 1999. He has written for Black Flame with Judge Dredd: Black Atlantic (co-written with Simon Jowett) and two Durham Red novels. He lives in London, England.