Thin Air is a dystopian cyberpunk military science fiction novel by Richard K. Morgan first published in 2018. Set in the same reality as his 2007 novel Black Man (published as Thirteen or Th1rte3n in the United States), it is set "well over a century" later than the earlier novel, with all the action taking place on Mars, whereas Black Man / Thirteen is set on Earth.
Plot
Protagonist Hakan Veil was genetically engineered from childhood to be a "hibernoid", a genetically enhanced and deeply augmented human essentially sold into indentured servitude at conception, when the conditioning and modification processes begin. This process and the extent of their integration is so taxing that those who undergo the treatments must spend four months of every [Earth] year asleep in order for their minds and bodies to cope with the tremendous strains that result. Bred to be a crisis commando, Veil and those like him are referred to as Overriders or "Black Hatch Men", used as a last resort measure to protect the bottom line for companies who can afford to hire them. As an Overrider, Veil is conditioned to view saving human life as a secondary concern in favor of monetary assets and commodities like spaceships or freighters and their cargo. Overriders are so fierce and so violent in the execution of their duties, they've taken on an almost mythical status in society, their exploits elevated to sensationalized "boogey man" stories worthy of being syndicated into a popular program, a tagline for which is repeated throughout the novel: "Don't wake the Overrider", as it is understood just how dangerous they are.
Veil was fired after many years of service and countless missions for a private military contractor, exiled to Mars after the "failure" of his final mission in which he not only refused to kill the daughter of a public figure, but ensured her escape and eventual return to her family. Exploiting loopholes in the decommissioning process, Veil begins his exile to Mars fully intact, retaining nearly all of his military-grade augmentations including his AI combat and analysis system. He works as muscle-for-hire to pay for his four-month hibernation, as his augmented physiology still requires him to go into stasis. Veil dislikes being marooned on Mars, but he knows all the players, and at some point or another, has done work for each of them. He would like more than anything to return to Earth, but the expense of such travel is no longer within his reach; he can barely afford to pay the mortgage on his small living space while also paying the storage fees for the cryopod he needs for his annual hibernation period.
At the novel's opening, Veil has just come out of a hibernation cycle and is "running hot", an idiom for the physical and biological state his body is in upon waking. Overriders are an emergency measure, and as such, need to be at peak performance the moment they are activated so everything from physical strength, metabolism, endorphin production, and even aggressive tendencies are amped up to extremely high levels.
Veil's first course of action after waking is to take care of unfinished business from before he was forced to go into hibernation. A stripper/prostitute client was brutally murdered by her boss for stealing, even after Veil had negotiated for her safety, made reparations, and given her assurances she would be safe. Now, freshly awake, he is anxious to settle things properly with the one responsible; a task he performs savagely and efficiently in the middle of a busy night club in front of witnesses. As a result, he is picked up by local BPD (Bradbury Police Department) law enforcement for questioning.
While in holding, Veil sees a news story saying that United Nations officials have sent investigators to Mars to look into irregularities in a local lottery system. The story makes it clear that these visits are not only unwelcome by Mars, but thoroughly disruptive for everyone on the planet regardless of which side of the law they choose to operate, due to the scrutiny. It is revealed the Veil has a loose contract with a newer branch of the Chinese triads, which is trying to establish a foothold in the area, taking over new territory and fending off attacks with Veil's assistance.
Veil, already in trouble, agrees to work with the auditors in exchange for his release, as local law enforcement does not want to spend its time "babysitting" someone from Earth who only seems to make life on Mars more difficult. His only point of contact is police captain Nikki Chakana. Veil is informed of an audit from the Colonial Oversight Initiative (COLIN for short), and Chakana is tasked with escorting a diplomat from Earth named Madison Madekwe. Too worried about the local crime and "real" issues to care about a diplomatic problem with a distant, loathed oversight body, Chakana agrees to let Veil go as long as he acts as Madekwe's bodyguard during her stay.
Veil meets Madekwe as she arrives on Mars and while the two chat, Madekwe reveals she is actually there investigating lottery fraud. The planetary lottery is a key element in the story. Life on Mars is hard, and many turn to crime to get the money for a trip back to Earth ("A Ticket Home", in the book). The lottery is a legitimate way to send people back to Earth, set up by COLIN mostly to keep the population hopeful. Madekwe reveals a lottery winner named Pablo Torres (A.K.A. Pavel Torres) has gone missing, and COLIN is worried about fraud being connected to the lottery by his killer. Veil starts the Torres investigation by contacting a few friends, including a hacker known as The Goat God, and discovers Torres is either dead or thoroughly "unpersoned" by another power he might have upset, though the only concrete lead he can acquire is the name of Torres' girlfriend, Nina Uchimara. After Veil questions Uchimara over a pipe of highly potent THC-laced narcotics, she makes it clear she is attracted to dangerous men, and they have sex. In the hazy afterglow and coming down from the drugs, Uchimara gets angry at Veil and kicks him out when he continues to press her with questions about Torres and activities he may have been involved in that could have led to his death. Veil returns to his fortified home. During the night he is assaulted by a team with military-grade equipment that would not be available to street-level gangs on Mars. Veil survives the assault easily as the assailants were unprepared for an encounter with an Overrider still "running hot" and looking for a good fight. Veil meets Chakana's response team afterwards and learns that Madekwe was abducted in the early morning from a travel terminal by a team like the one that attacked him.
Veil does the legwork on Madekwe's abduction. Captured footage shows a team that must be military- or corporate-trained. The Goat God can only tell Veil so much about the footage he has already acquired and dissected himself, although he explains that the team was using shock and terror tactics to mask their clean extraction job. During Veil's investigation, he meets with another old friend who is retired now, and married to one of the colony overseers under the main colony director, Mulholland. It is apparent to both of them that Mulholland is corrupt. While Veil is initially suspicious, he comes to the conclusion his retired friend cannot do much to hurt him. After chasing a few leads, he is attacked by a corporate clean-up squad out in Gingrich Field; they are sloppy and one of them is killed by her own team's incompetence. When he begins running out of leads, The Goat God reaches him with a name: Hidalgo.
The Goat God explains to Veil the rough history of Hidalgo as a big-shot gangster back on Earth who has been making a name for himself on Mars by outsmarting law enforcement and encroaching on the territories of rival gangs. He is the strongest suspect for Madekwe's abduction as his activities are related to the irregularities she was sent to investigate. As Veil goes to track him down, he is captured by Allauca, the wife of his retired friend, and some of her henchmen. She tells him Torres really did die and his death was simply an accident. Veil manages to escape, killing nearly all of his captors including Allauca, only to have the Marshall's service swoop in at the end. The Marshalls recover Veil, offer him aid and a safe place to recover from his injuries. Veil negotiates some upgrades to his internal systems in exchange for the promise of giving them Hidalgo and allowing the Marshall's service to take all the credit. The Marshall's service agrees to this, and to spreading false reports that Veil died at the scene.
Having recovered from his injuries and received his upgraded internal systems, Veil renews the hunt for Hidalgo, who has Madekwe. Veil returns to see Nina Uchimara because during his convalescence he remembers that she had said something that revealed she had a closer connection to Hidalgo than she had intended to let on. Uchimara confirms that she has known Hidalgo for some time. Veil convinces her that what Hidalgo has planned for Mars is in no one's best interest. She agrees to be part of a plan to draw Hidalgo, or at least some of his closer associates, out of hiding.
Veil lets word spread that Nina Uchimara is being targeted by local law enforcement for her connection to Hidalgo, counting on him taking steps to either intervene or silence her before she can talk to the authorities about what she knows. Veil, working with the Marshall's service sets up a sting operation outside the contact's apartment building ready to apprehend whomever Hidalgo sends for her with the hopes of getting even closer to him and his capture. Veil's plan works but also comes with a shock. Hidalgo sent professionals to retrieve and or kill the contact, and one of them turns out to be Madison Madekwe in full tactical gear and armed for an assault. Thinking quickly, Veil rushes in before the Marshalls can be given the order to spring their trap. Veil kills most of the retrieval team with a shotgun, leaving Madekwe the only one standing, shocked and surprised to see him still alive. The two make a quick escape from the sting operation while Veil begins to put pieces together starting with the fact that Madison Madekwe is not a simple COLIN executive sent to Mars to investigate corruption, and more importantly, was not actually kidnapped at all, but rather staged the whole incident as a means of getting in contact with her real objective, Hidalgo.
Veil realizes that Madison Madekwe and Hidalgo are both covert operatives for Navy SOC (special operations command) and were sent to Mars at different times to enact plans that would eventually lead to Earth gaining greater control over Mars, its people, and industry. It turns out that Hidalgo was part of a team sent to Mars 14 (Earth) years prior as part of a failed mission that resulted in him and his team being abandoned by the Navy to distance themselves from the fallout. Hidalgo and a handful of his surviving team used their skills and remaining resources to infiltrate as much of Mars' infrastructure as they could, including the underworld. Hidalgo's only drive during that time was to gather as many resources and intelligence as possible to make the failure of his original mission a possibility once again, to give Earth cause to impose its authority over Mars. Madekwe was sent in covertly by the Navy, under the guise of a COLIN executive to retrieve Hidalgo and what information he had to make an overthrow of Mars possible.