by M. T Hill
Current status
Three subsequent expeditions into Bilmstead have yielded no comparable data, nor any confirmation of synthetic growing operations, including the machinery seen by Officer QE. This is despite positive identification of the ‘field’ in which Officer QE encountered the primary suspect.
While it is strongly suspected that Bilmstead is running with hyperlocalised, unregulated civic services in place, alongside an advanced programme of robotics engineering and medical research, Bilmstead community members are reluctant to testify to this, and to date there is no other admissible evidence (samples of synthetic insects collected from Bilmstead have disintegrated under lab conditions).
For these reasons, ongoing operational and budgetary challenges preclude the continued use of THEMIS assets in this investigation. Resources have been diverted to more pressing affairs [see notes on anti-militia operations in Sutton Coldfield, Wolverhampton], and case 309921 will be frozen. As a precautionary measure, however, all database entries related to the Cold Veil case are scheduled for deletion. As a priority, all available copies of proscribed novel The Cold Veil by author Laurel M. Brace are to be located and destroyed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Endless thanks to those who read drafts, answered weird questions and kept me at it: Alex, James, Nina, Penny, Matthew, Steph, Holly, my agent Sam Copeland, and the much-missed Ed.
I’m massively grateful to my editor Gary Budden, not least for his incisiveness and patience. Thank you also to PR queen Lydia Gittins and the rest of the Titan Books crew, with special thanks to Julia Lloyd for her stunning cover art.
Lastly, my love and gratitude to close friends and family, especially Suze and Albie.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M.T. Hill was born in 1984 and grew up in Tameside, Greater Manchester. He is the author of two novels set in a collapsing future Britain: Dundee International Book Prize 2012 finalist The Folded Man, and 2016 Philip K. Dick Award nominee Graft. He lives on the edge of the Peak District with his wife and son.
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