Plausibly Deniable

Edited by

Jamie Ibson

(Baen, March 3, 2026, 288pp, Tpb and Kindle)

“Blood and Circuits” by Jacob Holo & Edie Skye

“Bag Man” by Jack Clemons (reprint from 2019)

“Backup Plans” by Jason Cordova & Melissa Olthoff

“One Last Chance” by Jody Lynn Nye

“The Hunter Becomes the Hunted Becomes the Hunter” by Craig Martelle

“When It Counts” by Marisa Wolf

“Off Duty” by Casey Moores

“No Extradition” by Kacey Ezell & Nick Steverson

“Supplies Party” by Michael Z. Williamson & Jessica Schlenker

“Buff Orpington Crosses the Finish Line” by Buff Orpington

Reviewed by Rick Cartwright

From the blurb, because it sums up the anthology nicely:

“Who? No idea, never heard of him.” —Spies, mercenaries, operatives, and criminals everywhere

In Plausibly Deniable, we get a peek behind the curtain. We get to see what shouldn’t be seen, to know what they don’t want you to know, and to find out the true story of whodunnit.

The stories range from dark, to laugh out loud funny and everything in between. A bonus is that four of the stories are either from existing universes or feature characters from an upcoming novel.

Reviewers Note: “Bag Man” was first published in the 2019 anthology We Dare. Normally, Tangent Online doesn’t review reprints. This one was worth making an exception.

Leading off the anthology is Jacob Holo & Edie Skye in “Blood and Circuits.” Set in the Sol Blazers universe, this tale establishes the theme of people doing jobs for people who don’t want to get their hands dirty or even know (officially) that a job is being done.

In the Sol Blazers universe, there are people whose ancestors have either genetically modified themselves or, such as our main character, Akio, eschewed physical bodies altogether in favor of splitting their consciousness among many different artificial bodies, while occasionally reuniting to aggregate the experiences that each individual of a copy clan has.

What gets Akio interested in the job is that one of her copy clan sisters, another version of her, seems to be involved in a criminal undertaking. Akio infiltrates the space habitat where the syndicate is based. In the story’s course, we find that, like many such jobs, nothing is quite as it seems.

“Bagman,” by the late Jack Clemons, is an interesting mix of cyberpunk and noir reminiscent of Blade Runner or William Gibson while still having its unique voice. We follow the antihero taking on a job for a corporate elite family and assembling a team to get it done. A day in the life, just with a lot more violence.

The world-building is excellent, the pacing is taut, and the ending ambiguous. The biggest tragedy of the story is that, while it clearly hinted at more stories to be told, the untimely passing of the author shut that door.

“Backup Plan” by Jason Cordova & Melissa Olthoff is a story about multiple agents, all tasked with the same mission: to gather and steal genetic material from the leaders of a human colony that practices genetic engineering. Told from a dual point of view, it’s an interesting story highlighting the different methodologies and challenges that each set of agents faces in trying to accomplish the mission and smuggle the material off-world, thus completing the mission.

One of the agents employs an advantage that the others did not have, setting up the twist that allows the agent to succeed in a way that most readers won’t see coming.

Jody Lynn Nye is one of the major names in science fiction. “One Last Chance” is a tight, well written story that starts out by leading the reader to believe that this is a story of a woman betrayed by a lover turned traitor out to redeem herself from the taint of guilt by association. She has devoted herself to hunting down and bringing to justice her onetime lover whose betrayal destroyed her career.

We soon find out that there’s a reason why the terrorist could never be caught and could never be traced. It leads to an ending that you don’t quite see coming.

“The Hunter Becomes the Hunted Becomes the Hunter” by Craig Martelle is an updated retelling of the classic short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” except with several twists that Richard Connell never considered.

Our main character is a guide for the wealthy to engage in the ultimate blood sport going out into a Judge Dreddesqe wasteland to hunt down criminals exiled from the city. The guide rationalizes that he is merely helping to put people out of their misery of an existence in the harsh environment.

In the course of the story, the character gets his moral compass recalibrated and faces just what he’s been hiding with platitudes.

“When It Counts” by Marissa Wolfe tells the story of a deep-cover agent sent to keep a wavering system within the empire she serves. That same empire sends another operative whose task is simpler: gather enough information to send in military force to destroy the city in order to save it. Our heroine adopts several disguises and methodically works to isolate and eliminate the traitors she sought to find. She also has to deal with the question of what to do with a friend who can turn out to be your worst enemy.

“Off Duty” by Casey Moores is set in the Blood and Armor universe shared by Bill Fawcett, Casey Moores, and Melissa Olthoff.

Our main character is in charge of his nations’s presidential security detail and is dealing with the loss of half his command in the aftermath of the latest in a series of assassination attempts.

What do you do when you’re boss orders you to take some time off to get your headspace and timing back while a general who won’t stop until the new Kurdish Republic is eliminated, starting at the top? Well, for Captain Dokai, the head of the security detachment, he takes a vacation. A very special vacation.

The story is not only engaging, but it’s a good sample of how the universe and its armored suits are used to defend the new Republic. The outcome is not only successful but has a twist that anyone who has any knowledge of the Middle East would see as entirely plausible.

“No Extradition” by Kacey Ezell & Nick Steverson has a bit of a Miami Vice meets Tom Clancy vibe that the authors meld into a unique story.

Olivia’s in a bad way, half her team is dead because the other half sold out to the bad guys. She’s stuck in Venezuela with a mission that still needs doing and she’s too stubborn to run away because failure results in lots of other agents being exposed and killed.

The agency provides her with an unlikely resource. This is a story about a nice American CIA agent and a retired mob enforcer, both stuck in Venezuela, both looking for a way out. The action is non-stop, as you would expect from something by these authors. It also does a good job conveying the pain of betrayal and the cost of justice.

For such a dark and dire premise, the ending is hilarious and appropriate.

Michael Z. Williamson & Jessica Schlenker’s near-future “Supplies Party” examines the question asked by militaries since Ogg formed up a troop to go after the Neandertals. Who’s the bigger enemy? The ones attacking you or your own people controlling your supply chain?

Finding the enemy takes supplies and materiel. The bases at the sharp end of the logistics chain provision the shooters. What to do when your own side keeps shorting you?

“Supplies Party” is a slice of life of a forward base tasked with both supplying ground troops and protecting themselves by keeping all their systems up and running. When you’re in a hot desert location, that creates problems all its own. The story is a darkly humorous look at the lengths troops will go to keep things running, scrounge supplies, and bare more than their souls to keep the mission going.

“Buff Orpington Crosses the Finish Line” by the shadowy and mysterious Buff Orpington, man of mystery with a disturbing devotion to his chroniclers, Jamie Ibson and Casey Moores, ends the anthology.

Imagine The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare tossed in a blender with The Man from U.N.C.L.E. a Tom Clancy novel along with a dash of In like Flint. This would give you something of the vibe of Buff Orpington.

This story starts in Russia, winds up in Finland, has techno thievery, sexy Viking twins, villains, betrayal and derring do. If you want a good chuckle and some excellent writing, it’s well worth your time to read.

I was lucky enough to have a covert conversation with Buff Orpington—he assures me that he’s got more stories to tell, all true of course, that should be published in a novel sometime this summer.

Rick Cartwright learned the fine art of storytelling sitting around kitchen tables, campfires and courtrooms over the years but came to writing later in life after getting out of the legal profession while he could still get his soul back. When he’s not doing reviews for Tangent Online, he writes SF, alternate history, fantasy, and has been accused of creating a PTSD romance.