Synthetic Companion Jacob Kind's last memory was of crashing a truck on a dark night road with a bullet in his shoulder. Rescued by a retired doctor and his wife and brought to their farm, he struggles with an addiction to opiates that has crippled him. As he undergoes a hellish detox, Jacob knows his very presence puts his rescuers, pro-synthetic advocates, in real danger. A very bad man, Munson Tolliver, is coming for him. But Larkin Finn, the man Jacob's adopted mother sent him to find, is also somewhere in the area, and he must find the man before Tolliver finds them both. But will Jacob, in his diminished capacity, be able to protect his new-found friends? Will he live up to his promise to serve and protect humanity?