Joe Wong has been reassigned to Mars. That is the polite version. The less polite version involves Helios Extraction Corp's desperate grab for off-world mining contracts, a one-way ticket on a transport that smells like recycled sweat, and the growing suspicion that someone high up the food chain wants Joe as far from Earth—and from his impossible mineral discovery—as physics allows.

The transit alone is enough to break most people. Months in a tin can hurtling through the void, breathing recycled air that carries the ghost of every exhale from every passenger before you, eating ration packs with all the culinary inspiration of flavored cardboard. The landing is worse. Mars gravity plays tricks on your inner ear for weeks. And the dust—that omnipresent rusty particulate—begins infiltrating your life from the moment you step off the transport, working its way into seals, joints, fabric, food, and eventually your psychology.

Mars mining is a different beast. On Earth, you drill through familiar geology—rock formations mapped and understood for centuries. On Mars, every bore is a step into genuine terra incognita. Cave-ins happen differently in lower gravity. Dust storms strip protective coatings off equipment designed for far harsher conditions. The cold reaches your bones and does not let go.

But Mars has its own secrets buried in ancient rock.

The mineral signatures Joe found on Earth are here too—stronger, deeper, and arranged in geometric patterns that repeat with mathematical precision at depths corresponding to specific geological epochs. This is not scattered contamination. This is structure. This is intention. This is something placed here before the first human ancestor looked up at the stars.

Flipper, Joe's telepathic dog and constant companion, is changing too. Their neural bond—forged by shared implants and deepened by exposure to the alien mineral—has grown more powerful. On the transport, Flipper binge-read technical manuals through Joe's implant and now has annoyingly well-informed opinions about drill bit metallurgy. In Martian gravity, the dog's telepathic range is expanding, picking up fragments of thought from people and systems that should be well outside his ability to perceive.

Meanwhile, certain areas of the Martian mining zone—areas corresponding to the strongest mineral signatures—have been quietly marked off-limits by personnel who do not appear on any official Helios roster. Joe's reports about the patterns are met with conspicuous silence. His requests for analysis equipment are denied. And his conviction that the company is sitting on something world-changing is hardening into certainty.

Back on Earth, the distance grows. Communications carry a signal delay that turns conversations into exercises in patience. His father Dale, still sharing meals with the Visitor Keth at Linda's table in the Tulsa Dome while she loads another plate of snickerdoodles, senses his son has stumbled into something that reaches far beyond corporate politics. Dale knows things about the Visitors he has never shared—not from deception, but from a preacher's instinct that some truths need to be arrived at, not delivered.

"I'll always be a dog and you'll always be Wong," Flipper reminds him when the red dust and the corporate silence threaten to break him. It is not an answer. It is better than an answer.

The second book in the BETWEEN THE ROCKS series expands from Earth's claustrophobic domes to the hostile frontier of Mars, where the stakes are higher, the air is thinner, and the secrets are buried deeper than Joe ever imagined.

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Store Description

We first started out as ?The Paperback Exchange,? a chain of physical bookstores where we would part exchange your beloved books for new stories to transport you to faraway places. However, as shopping started to evolve to online shops and marketplaces, we bid our stores goodbye to become ?PBShop.? This transition has only allowed us to blossom as we now ship thousands of titles to book lovers across the globe. We pride ourselves in being a community of local book lovers which allows our passion and devotion to shine in everything we do. In 2020 we not only celebrated our 20th birthday but our 1st birthday as being completely employee owned after becoming an E.O.T in September 2019. We are proud to be different and embrace standing apart on a book mountain by working from a virtual inventory which allows us to provide thousands of books that may be difficult to get for your bookshelf or your studies. Working with a number of different suppliers allows us to explore other avenues such as puzzles, sheet music and even stationery so we really do have something for everyone. Life is about being versatile in all realms of existence. If this is your first visit or you are a returning customer, we would like to welcome you to the PBShop family, for there is no friend as loyal as a book. We are a company who put our customers at the centre of everything we do as we understand the importance of reading because once you learn to read, you will forever be free. There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours that we are yet to explore, which is why we will forever inspire curious minds.

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Pbshop.co.uk Ltd
Unit 22 Horcott Industrial Estate, Horcott Road, Fairford, GL7 4BX, United Kingdom

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Returns Policy
We ask all customers to contact us for authorisation should they wish to return their order. Orders returned without authorisation may not be credited.
If you wish to return, please contact us within 14 days of receiving your order to obtain authorisation.

Returns requested beyond this time will not be authorised.

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If you are a consumer you can cancel the contract in accordance with the following. Consumer means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.

INFORMATION REGARDING THE RIGHT OF CANCELLATION

Statutory Right to cancel

You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the the last good or the last lot or piece.

To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us, Paperbackshop-US, 901 Penhorn Avenue, Unit 6, 07094, Secaucus, New Jersey, U.S.A., 44 1285 712917, of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or e-mail). You may use the attached model cancellation form, but it is not obligatory. You can also electronically fill in and submit a clear statement on our website, under "My Purchases" in "My Account". If you use this option, we will communicate to you an acknowledgement of receipt of such a cancellation on a durable medium (e.g. by e-mail) without delay.

To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.

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If you cancel this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).

We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.

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You shall send back the goods or hand them over to us or Paperbackshop-US, PaperbackShopUS, 801 Penhorn Avenue Unit 5, 07094, Secaucus, New Jersey, U.S.A., 44 1285 712917, without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you communicate your cancellation from this contract to us. The deadline is met if you send back the goods before the period of 14 days has expired. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.

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The right of cancellation does not apply to:

the delivery of newspapers, journals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts; and
the supply of digital content (including ebooks) which is not supplied on a tangible medium (e.g. on a CD or DVD) if you accepted when you placed your order that we could start to deliver it, and that you could not cancel it once delivery had started.

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To: (Paperbackshop-US, 901 Penhorn Avenue, Unit 6, 07094, Secaucus, New Jersey, U.S.A., 44 1285 712917)

I/We (*) hereby give notice that I/We (*) withdraw from my/our (*) contract of sale of the following goods (*)/for the provision of the following goods (*)/for the provision of the following service (*),

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Books are shipped from our US or UK warehouses. Delivery estimates allow for delivery from either location.

Shipping rates within U.S.A.

Shipping rates within U.S.A.
Order quantity	7 to 14 business days	7 to 14 business days
First item	� 0.00	� 0.00

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