Mouse Cage (Stories from San Iadras) by Malcolm F. Cross

SPSFC 2022

Troy carries more secrets with him than most. A test subject for experimental surgery, a clone gengineered from modified lab mice, an addict. He tells himself that his past is behind him, but he’ll never escape his childhood in Lake North’s labs. What was done to him there, what he was made into, what he did. Fifteen years after the Emancipation freed him, a prestigious charity invites him to speak about it at their fundraising evening. That’s where Troy meets the love of his life – Jennifer. A woman with a hundred and sixty-seven clone sisters and a past she doesn’t like talking about. Hurts that don’t show on the outside. Dark secrets she’s unwilling to even whisper. Troy’s perfect match. But when the past begins catching up to Troy, not even their love will be strong enough to protect him if he can’t face the agonizing truth of who he and Jennifer really are. For a pair of experts at hiding from the truth, finding a way to stop lying to themselves and each other isn’t the happily ever after for their story. It’s the start.

Dog Country by Malcolm F. Cross

SPSFC

A crowdfunded civil war is Azerbaijan’s only hope against its murderous dictatorship. The war is Edane Estian’s only chance to find out if he’s more than what he was designed to be. He’s a clone soldier, gengineered from a dog’s DNA and hardened by a brutal training regime. He’d be perfect for the job if an outraged society hadn’t intervened, freed him at age seven, and placed him in an adopted family. Is he Edane? Cathy and Beth’s son, Janine’s boyfriend, valued member of his MilSim sports team? Or is he still White-Six, serial number CNR5-4853-W6, the untroubled killing machine? By joining a war to protect the powerless, he hopes to become more than the sum of his parts. Without White-Six, he’ll never survive this war. If that’s all he can be, he’ll never leave it.