Avery Cates Books in Order

In a bleak future, killer-for-hire Avery Cates is forced to take one impossible job, assassinate Dennis Squalor, founder of the Electric Church. Squalor's followers trade flesh for machine bodies, and stopping him may cost Avery everything.

Avery has clawed his way to the top in New York, which only means he has farther to fall. Injected with deadly nanotech while the world slides toward extinction, he may become either executioner or savior.

After surviving catastrophe, Avery lands in Chengara Penitentiary, a prison with a survival rate of zero. Escaping it is only the first problem. Outside, the world is splintering and somebody wants him dead in very strange ways.

The army has rebuilt Avery with top-class augments and turned him into a weapon again. When he is sold to the highest bidder, he ends up in the hands of an old enemy who wants one last job done.

With the System broken apart, Avery and his protege Remy take a job to kill a Bolivian despot. The payout is information Avery badly wants, but the hunt leads straight into psionics, war, and one more impossible choice.

Avery is hauled toward the mysterious Iron Island, where he may finally learn why so many people want him alive. The trip brings fresh enemies, uneasy allies, and one more brutal turn in the end of the world.

Chasing a clue called the Pale, Avery pushes toward Castelvecchio and the chance to get his footing back. The road is ugly, the alliances are worse, and the world keeps narrowing around him.

Avery's later adventures continue with a showdown against a psionic who has made himself lord of a crumbling city. Avery wants passage and answers. Trouble is what he actually gets.

Back on dry land, Avery keeps moving through a shattered world ruled by psionics, warlords, and bad luck. The trail leads toward the mysterious Bey, and every new ally looks like tomorrow's problem.

Avery follows the trail to fortified Castelvecchio, where a surviving piece of the old System may still exist. He finally has a target again, but reaching it means crossing a city full of traps, politics, and powerful enemies.

Years before The Electric Church, a younger Avery Cates takes his first real job in the newly formed System. The hit teaches him hard lessons about power, survival, and why trust is usually a luxury.

This Avery Cates short story drops the gunner into another ugly dispute where nothing is fair and violence is always the final argument. In Avery's world, justice is mostly a story people tell themselves.

Fleeing the ruins behind him, Avery heads toward Cochtopa, a hidden cache of data, weapons, and hope. The trip is brutal from the start, with old enemies, bad terrain, and a dying world closing in from every side.

Avery and his shrinking band finally reach Cochtopa, the hidden installation packed with old System weapons. The problem is its AI security is built around Dick Marin, turning the prize into another deadly showdown.

Avery Cates is closing in on Cochtopa, the buried System bunker that might give humanity one last chance. The nearer he gets, the smaller his crew becomes, and every mile turns into a fight over survival, trust, and dwindling resources.

Cochtopa should feel like victory, but holding a miracle bunker is harder than finding it. Strange failures inside the installation turn Avery's prize into one more trap while the larger war keeps closing in.