The Blood Contract — James Dargan

The Blood Contract: The Blood Machine World Book 1The future runs on blood. And someone has to count the bodies.Inspector Morgan Fraser audits the world's most valuable resource—human plasma. His job is to keep the factories clean, the ledgers balanced, the lies believable. But when an inspection on the city's edge exposes something beneath the paperwork, Fraser uncovers a truth older than any corporation—one written in marrow, not ink.In a society where hunger is policy and empathy is a liability, Fraser's infection becomes his secret…and his weapon. A weary bureaucrat turns into the one thing the system never planned for—a witness who refuses to look away.The Blood Contract launches The Blood Machine Cycle—a bleak, visceral fusion of noir, biotech horror, and slow-burning apocalypse. For readers of Richard K. Morgan, Jeff VanderMeer, and Cormac McCarthy, this is a world where the future doesn't sparkle—it bleeds.