Release #2 - Catching Up From Below

Young army veteran Aleksandr Kogan wants to support his parents with his printing business, but an extortion ring is bleeding him dry. As a talented counterfeiter, he's managed to satisfy their demands by paying in fake dollar bills. While the mafia has spared Aleks so far, someone else is not so fortunate: Azariah, an undead servant of the underworld who should be aiding those in the grave instead of crawling out of the one they threw him in. As Aleks struggles to escape the mafia, Azariah tries to drill his way right back in on unfinished business. Aleks and Azariah cross paths when they both turn to an art smuggler in need of help delivering stolen, religious iconography to a drop point in Hungary. If Azariah can score this gig, he'll be on a path to finally settling a score steeped in years of bad blood. If Aleks can pull it off, he'll cast off his financial shackles: the gig pays a whole year's salary in a weekend! But there's a reason it pays so well: the trek is a three-day drive through old Soviet roads in a crumbling world of corrupt border guards, armed highwaymen, and weather that could flip a car. Your fellow travelers tend to be drug runners, jewel thieves -- you know, upstanding members of society who would never dream of stabbing you in the back when they figure out what kind of cargo you're carrying. Ikon is inspired by the Judeo-Christian Book of Tobit, the book Comrade Criminal by Stephen Handelman, Balto-Slavic pagan mythology, and the movies Брат and Брат II.

M Rodriguez