Synopsis: Double Helix

Ezra Macbriar has been cleaning up his life for a few years now. Although it was painful, he knew that leaving Earth to live with his adoptive family on Mars was the right thing to do. Lonely as it was, working at the Book Emporium, owned by his foster parents, was therapeutic for him. Perhaps he could finally kick his habits to the curb and begin to truly live, no longer existing in the shadow of the violent deaths of his mother and baby sister.

But the mystery behind the deaths still haunts him. The perpetrators were never caught, and were also responsible for the explosion of the DNetix laboratory in Siberia, causing the deaths of several doctors and scientists that had lived there, working on a genetically altered troop of warriors that would have replaced the common soldier in the field. Many of the experiments' bodies were found in the rubble alongside the staff, but several were missing. Could the unaccounted for have been responsible for the twin attacks?

As he ponders these things, Ezra meets a man calling himself Io Mellamer, who plays his violin for coins on the South District streets of First City, Mars. He's a gangly, sickly looking man with milk-pale skin and guarded eyes. Ezra tosses him some coin one day, not expecting to see him arrive at the Book Emporium only a few days later. Their contact would have ended there if not for the boisterous concern his foster sister, Ophelia, showed Io, inviting him into their home despite Ezra's distrust.

Are Ezra's doubts valid? Is Io just another vagrant off the street? Or does his odd habit of staying up at all hours of the night, his protectiveness of his past, and the scars on his chest and arm tell a different story? And what's his connection to a suspected pirate group named Blindspot?