Where the Axe Is Buried

In a near-future Federation ruled by an authoritarian president, the man in charge has lived for decades by moving his mind from one body into the next. Lilia, a scientist, has built an invention that could finally end his rule. She runs, trying to slip through a state surveillance net that leaves almost no gaps.

Four other people are tied to her fate, each already damaged by the regime. Palmer, whom she left behind in London, is desperate to learn why she vanished. Zoya, an activist imprisoned in the taiga, wrote a book that has fed a revolutionary movement.

Nikolai, the president's personal physician, is pushed toward ever harsher choices amid palace politics. Nurlan, a parliamentary staffer, tries to save his republic and sees the attempt go badly wrong.

Over all of them hangs Krotov, head of the Federation's security services, who has agents and assassins placed everywhere.

Several viewpoints carry this close-quarters political thriller, which turns on surveillance, immortality and what resistance costs. Western Europe, in this future, has handed its government to AI and given up human rule, which sets the Federation's one-man tyranny against a very different order.