Synopsis: From the back cover of the 2018 paperback edition: "For at least ten thousand years, something has been destroying alien civilisations across the galaxy. And now it's coming for us. In the Twenty Fifth Century, the two biggest corporations in history are racing outwards, far beyond the boundaries of human space, scattering settlements and habitats as they go. And they're making a lot of money doing it. But an ARTOK company station has been destroyed and all its inhabitants slaughtered, and now the Anglo-Russian company has been drawn into interstellar war with its historic rival NipponDeutsch. The greatest trading opportunity of all time is nearly within their grasp, and it offers unimaginable wealth and power to the winner. But as they chase the great prize, the companies discover an alien starship entombed in the ice of a remote mountaintop, and abandoned cities buried under ancient jungles. Star-travelling species are being blotted out. Journalist David Chambers is terrified. He's been working on a story about the fate of the hated cyborg soldiers. They disappeared from human history decades ago, but now they're back, fighting in out-of-the-way wars across the minor planets. What is the mysterious Operation ThousandEyes? He's told the security police everything he knows, and they don't seem to care. But he realises that if he tells anyone else, he'll be killed. Plenty of other journalists have died recently. If he can keep out of the reach of the police, avoid being killed in any of the several wars which surround him, escape the corporate hitmen and manage not to outrage the holy mercenaries of a resurgent ancient religion, then all Chambers has to worry about is a pack of monstrous carnivores. And his beer cellar is trying to murder him."