Master assassin Shayla Carver has killed many times. That's what assassins do, nothing to lose sleep over, but this mission is different. She's never killed a whole planet before. In a time when Earth is little more than a legend, life is dangerous for wayward colonies. Everyone fears the Emperor's power to order a Cleansing, the burning of all traces of civilization from the face of a planet. Shayla's own home world was Cleansed, and now, years later, she's ready to exact payment in kind. But her meticulous planning didn't prepare her for living undercover amongst some of the two billion people she's about to slaughter. Ordinary people. Not the strutting Imperials readily dismissed as legitimate targets or collateral damage. Then there's the Emperor himself. An ordinary man with troubles and dreams of his own. Did this man really order the slaughter of innocents? Can she? Now she's starting to lose sleep.