Ryan Scott used to build rockets until his company exploded along with his Mars mission. Now he meditates in California, a failed billionaire trying to forget how he lost everything. That's when Jennifer Rooker roars into his life in a cherry-red Corvette with a plan that's either brilliant or insane: steal the most advanced spacecraft ever built.

The target is Odyssey - a three-billion-dollar rocket poised to make history as the first vessel to reach Mars. But this isn't just about theft. Jennifer shows Ryan evidence that his company's destruction was sabotage, orchestrated by her own father, aerospace titan Jimmy Rooker. The same man whose rocket supposedly killed her brother in a "test chamber accident."

To pull off the impossible, they'll need a crew: a rogue NASA flight director hiding in the Nevada desert, an ex-Navy commander who knows how to make things disappear, and a team of bitter engineers who helped build the very rocket they plan to steal. Each brings skills vital to the heist - and each harbors their own reason for revenge.

But as they analyze security systems and plan entry points, they discover something buried in Odyssey's computer core: an artificial intelligence receiving signals from deep space. The same discovery that got Jennifer's brother killed.

ROAD TO MARS: BOOK ONE launches a high-stakes techno-thriller that melds cutting-edge space technology with classic heist execution. The clock is ticking, the team is assembling, and Mars isn't the only destination in play. The most ambitious theft in human history is about to begin.

Sometimes revenge means reaching for the stars.