The Slab (Gears of War)

MARCUS FENIX. WAR HERO. LOYAL SON. TRAITOR.

Ten years after Emergence Day, as the Locust Horde advances on humanity€s last defended area€"Ephyra€"in a bloody war that has seen billions die, Marcus Fenix does the unthinkable: he defies orders and abandons his post during a critical battle in a bid to rescue his father, weapons scientist Adam Fenix. But Adam is buried in the rubble during a ferocious assault on the Fenix mansion, and Ephyra falls to the enemy. Marcus, grieving for a father everyone believes is dead, is court-martialed for dereliction of duty and sentenced to forty years in the Coalition of Ordered Government€s brutal maximum security prison, known simply as the Slab.

But Adam is very much alive, snatched from the destruction by the elite Onyx Guard on Chairman Richard Prescott€s orders. He€s now a long way from home and in a prison of his own€"a COG doomsday bunker on the tropical island of Azura, a place hidden from the rest of Sera since the Pendulum Wars. His own guilty secret has been exposed: Adam knew the Locust existed deep below the surface of Sera long before Emergence Day, and were being driven from their tunnels by a lethal parasite known as the Lambent. Now he has to find a way to destroy the Lambent while the dwindling COG forces fight to hold back a growing Locust army that€s threatening to overrun the city.

As Adam struggles to find redemption in his comfortable island jail, Marcus seeks his own atonement in the squalid, closed world within the Slab€s granite walls. While Dom Santiago and Anya Stroud fight to get him released, ready to make any sacrifice to free him, Marcus gradually finds unexpected kinship among Sera€s most dangerous criminals€"and a way to carry on his personal war against the Locust.

 €œAdam, you knew this day would come.€

It was a familiar voice: silky, imperial, polished, and utterly human.

€œHello, Myrrah.€ Adam Fenix found himself thinking of the terrible Locust food again. €œYou got my message, then.€

€œAnd how right you were. We do need you. And we shall take you. I hope you€re not planning anything foolish. You have responsibilities, Adam.€

It would be a living death. The Locust Queen would never release him, even if he developed a countermeasure. But he didn€t deserve any better.

€œI also have my service pistol.€

€œAnd I can take your son at any time.€

He had the measure of her, then, and she had his. €œYou leave Marcus out of this. It€s a condition.€ He opened the desk drawer and took out the handgun, a 9mm officer€s weapon. It made a distinctive clunk on the wooden desktop as he slammed it down. €œIf anything happens to him, I don€t care what happens to the rest of Sera.€