This Mortal Coil

Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that's not what makes her special. In Cat's world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius. That's no surprise, since Cat's father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction.

When a lone soldier, Cole, arrives with news of Lachlan Agatta's death, all hope seems lost for Catarina. Her father was the world's leading geneticist and humanity's best hope of beating a devastating virus. Then, hidden beneath Cole's genehacked enhancements, she finds a message of hope: Lachlan created a vaccine.

Catarina thought they'd stopped the Hydra virus. She was wrong. After laying everything on the line to decrypt the vaccine, Cat realises that Lachlan's daemon code is in the panel of every person on the planet. With it, he can reprogram humanity. She, Cole and Leoben set out to stop him, but they're on a timer. Cartaxus - the shadowy corporation that's both helped and hindered them - has a deadly end game in play. The virus is evolving, the vaccine is dying, and if Cat can't find Lachlan in three days, they'll use lethal code to wipe out everyone.

The nightmare of the outbreak is finally over, but Cat’s fight has only just begun. Exhausted, wounded, and reeling from revelations that have shaken her to her core, Cat is at a breaking point. Camped in the woods with Cole and Leoben, she’s working day and night, desperate to find a way to stop Lachlan’s plan to reprogram humanity. But she’s failing - Cat can’t even control her newly regrown panel, and try as she might to ignore them, she keeps seeing glitching visions from her past everywhere she turns.

Cat's hacking skills weren't enough to keep her from losing everything - her identity, her past and now her freedom. She's trapped and alone. Meanwhile, Jun Bei is close to realising her dream - the solution to humanity's in gene form. Or so she thinks. But now a new threat has emerged - a threat that could bring the world to the brink of a devastating war. Both sides will stop at nothing to seize control of humanity's future, and at the centre of this war is Cat, Jun Bei and a race against the clock save millions of lives.

Cat’s hacking skills weren’t enough to keep her from losing everything - her identity, her past, and now her freedom. She’s trapped and alone, but she’s survived this long, and she’s not giving up without a fight. Though the outbreak has been contained, a new threat has emerged - one that’s taken the world to the brink of a devastating war. With genetic technology that promises not just a cure for the plague, but a way to prevent death itself, both sides will stop at nothing to seize control of humanity’s future.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of These Precious Scars by Emily Suvada, read by Skye Bennett. Jun Bei, Cole, Anna, Leoben, Ziana. Five children with extraordinary potential. They don't get many visitors at the remote laboratory where they live under the eye of legendary geneticist Lachlan Agatta. The man and woman who arrive are nothing like the others. They're from Cartaxus and offer the children something rare and unfathomable: escape. But freedom means different things to the five children. For one of them, getting what they want may mean betraying everyone else.