FROM WESTERN WORD-SLINGER AND ANTHROPOLOGIST W. MICHAEL GEAR, COMES THE SEQUEL TO THE BESTSELLING CONTEMPORARY APOCALYPTIC WESTERN, DISSOLUTION. Lauren Davis is closing on her twenty-first birthday when a cyberattack leads to the collapse of the American banking system. On the advice of her boyfriend, a special forces lieutenant, she is told to flee Colorado Springs and make her way to Tappan Ranch in Wyoming. As the country continues to fall apart, Lauren and Randy Howman, a co-worker at her bank, make their way through the Colorado Rockies. On the advice of Tiffany Bishop, an old friend in Laramie, Lauren goes to work with an old boyfriend, Mike Vinich, providing FEMA provisions to refugees housed on a ranch outside of Cheyenne. There, she runs supplies to the outposts being established along the Wyoming/ Colorado line-what Governor Agar calls The Fourth Quadrant. When a riot breaks out and Mike is shot, Lauren ends up being called a hero. But fame comes at a great personal cost, and Lauren's demons are closing in. Pulled from duty along the Fourth Quadrant, and with Mike in a coma, Lauren learns of a raid on Laramie. There, she is taken hostage along with a busload of school children. With nothing left to lose, and nothing to live for, Lauren is forced to make one last gamble... "Gear is a master when it comes to vividly described settings: you can smell the smoke, hear the wind in the trees, and feel the cold."