Five Terrans are scattered across alien worlds, held captive by laws and cultures no human understands. Department 99 exists for exactly this problem. This is the story of how they get our people back. Westervelt arrives at the agency headquarters still buzzing from his latest mission, only to find chaos: agents stranded, diplomatic incidents piling up, and a Terran named Harris rotting in a cell on Trident, an oceanic world whose laws are as deep and unforgiving as its seas. The agency must navigate alien bureaucracies, negotiate with species whose logic makes no human sense, and do it all without starting an interstellar war. Fyfe writes with sharp wit and genuine affection for the absurdities of government work, even in space. The blend of procedural puzzle-solving, planet-of-the-week adventure, and workplace comedy feels remarkably fresh. This is 1962 at its most optimistic about human ingenuity, and its most honest about how messy saving people can be.
