The Bloodhounds of Zirth

In a bleak, high‑security penal colony on the distant star Zadda, the only prisoner who ever slipped the tightening net is a man known only by his code, 4W382ZT. When an urgent call comes in, the warden summons a small team of alien trackers and the terrifying mertha hounds—creatures bred to sniff out the faintest scent of escape. Special investigator Greg Purnell, a veteran of countless off‑world investigations, is thrust into the cold, metallic chamber where a mysterious spool of “mentape” holds the trail of the fugitive’s mind.

As the warden outlines the desperate chase across a storm‑swept valley, Purnell watches the near‑human Zirthan trackers, Rol and Dorta, and the blood‑thirsty mertha prepare to hunt. The tension builds as the escapee’s route is plotted, and the reader is left wondering whether the relentless pursuit will finally close the case—or if the prisoner will vanish into the hostile wilderness beyond.