Description
Mika is a tissue modification artist—she inks living designs into skin using engineered cells that integrate with the body, respond to stimulus, and create effects that exist in the space between art and biotechnology. She's been doing this work for fifteen years. She's very good at it. When Essa Vorn arrives for a removal consultation, Mika assumes it's a standard request—someone who's grown into a different version of themselves and the work no longer fits. But the scan shows something she doesn't understand. The botanical design on Essa's shoulder is producing proteins. Eight distinct compounds. None of them are in the modification's specification. None of them should exist. They're being produced at regulated rates. They're diffusing into surrounding tissue. They're designed—molecularly constructed—to cross cellular membranes and go somewhere specific in the body and do something when they get there. *Skinwork* is science fiction thriller about the things we put into our bodies, the things they might be doing without our knowledge, and the woman who discovers that one of her designs has been repurposed for something she never intended. It follows Mika as she investigates the anomalous protein production, traces the compounds' targets, and discovers that Essa Vorn's design was copied from someone else's work—work that was never meant to be replicated. The novel unfolds across twenty-two chapters, each one structured around a specific question: What It Shouldn't Be Making, Where Sev Went, What It's Delivering, Delivering What to Where, The Collective, Corporate Affiliation. The investigation is methodical—Mika approaches the problem the way she approaches everything: by documenting what she can measure, building probability envelopes around what she can't, and waiting for the accumulation of evidence to reveal the structure. What she discovers is that the modification industry has a hidden layer. Designs are being copied without attribution—not for aesthetic purpo
About the Author
Locke Halden is the author of "Skinwork" and other works.
