Shadowrun: The Runner Effect (A Desert Wars Story) by Brad Kelley

THEY DIDN’T BET ON THE SHADOWS.

Storm is the rough-and-tumble leader of the Dustkickers, a scrappy team of smugglers and former mercenaries eking out a living in the shadows of Egypt. When the Desert Wars Network selects them for a televised, supposedly nonlethal Red Team challenge, it feels like things are finally going right for a change. Legitimate contracts. Prize money. Corporate sponsorships. Trading cards. For the first time, the Dustkickers have a chance to leave the shadows behind and build a future worth fighting for.

But the shadows have a way of following those who try to escape them. A mysterious message arrives with a counteroffer that could change the team’s fortunes forever. Suddenly, Storm and the Dustkickers find themselves caught between rival corporate agendas, forced to make a choice no shadowrunner should have to make. As the line between simulation and reality disappears, every decision carries consequences, and every step draws them deeper into a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the battlefield.

The corps believe they’ve accounted for every variable. Every contingency. They didn’t. They didn’t account for the Runner Effect.

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