The Arbitrator

GREAT 5* REVIEWS ON GOODREADS https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/30760409-the-arbitrator WAS THERE A PANG OF REMORSE FOR HIS ACTIONS? POSSIBLY, BUT WHAT CHOICE DID HE HAVE? HE HAD NO ROOM FOR WEAKNESS, IF HE WANTED TO SURVIVE....Jim Brown, formerly a highly successful, but somewhat ruthless, troubleshooting agent for the EPA, The Earth Policy Administration, is rotting in prison, after killing several people on the planet Levita. He is also dying of an incurable drug habit that he has acquired whilst in prison. His only hope is a very expensive regeneration process, if he is to survive. This habit should already have killed a lesser man, but somehow he is clinging on. After surviving 10 years of his sentence, ostensibly for tax evasion, he is suddenly given a reprieve and offered a chance to redeem himself. He is sent as 'The Arbitrator' to Pirrus, an Earth colony world in another solar system, to try and stop a rebellion and bring matters under control. Though his title conveys that he is there to negotiate, but in reality he is there to enforce a settlement. If successful, he will be a rich man again and can go back to Earth for his regeneration treatment. But, he is running out of time as the deadline for the treatment to be effective, looms. Jim Brown is a man in a hurry, but manages to to end the rebellion within three weeks and capture the rebel leaders. He thinks he has accomplished his task and is getting ready to execute the rebel leaders, to set an example for others, when he meets Gina, the daughter of one of the rebels. She has come to plead for her father's life. Under the influence of the drugs, which he still is addicted to, Brown exploits the situation to his advantage. He seduces Gina in exchange for letting all the prisoners go, as he thinks they can't do him any harm. He then finds out from her that there is a plot by other foreign, off-world powers to invade Pirrus, before he ca depart for Earth. Brown is at a loss to understand why anybody would be interested in such a backwater of a planet, but he has no time to take his hard earned cash and get away to Earth. The drugs have made him a man without much of a conscience, preoccupied only with his own survival, so he decides to force Gina to cooperate with him, so he can get to the bottom of the situation. The plot thickens as his old life suddenly starts catching up with him and he also discovers that there is a mole in his organisation, who is undermining his efforts to succeed. Brown needs to find the mole quickly and thwart the forthcoming invasion is he is to ever get back to Earth for his regeneration. However, Brown begins to sense a change in himself, maybe because of his relationship with Gina. He slowly begins to think more about the interest of the people of the planet, than about his own survival. New 2019, 2nd EDITION with added chapters.