The Dark Side - Tom Ball

The Moon is a graveyard. And the United States is holding the shovel.

The year is 2029. When China's Chang'e-8 rover touches down at the Sea of Tranquility, the mission is supposed to be a triumph. Instead, it captures a terrifying void: no lander, no flag, and no footprints. The greatest achievement in American history was faked-and China has the 8K proof.

Leo Vance was NASA's best visual forensicist until he saw a shadow that didn't belong. Disgraced and exiled to a Mojave trailer, he thought he was done with the Moon. But when a ruthless Mexican cartel intercepts a secret Chinese return capsule, Leo is kidnapped for a specialized mission: verify the footage that could bankrupt a superpower.

The Cartel isn't just moving drugs anymore. They've become the "shadow carriers" for the Lunar Far Side, smuggling an alien isotope-Isotope-X-into the global market. While the world's elite fight for clean energy, the Cartel is laundering moon rocks into Earth's silver mines, holding a "dead-man's switch" over Washington's head.

Now, with the U.S. Space Force launching a desperate "redaction" mission to plant evidence on the lunar surface, Leo finds himself on a dark-launch shuttle headed for the vacuum. In a three-way war between the CIA, Beijing, and a global crime empire, Leo must decide: protect a sixty-year-old lie that keeps the world stable, or broadcast a truth that will light the dark side-and burn everything down.