Polity Agent is a 2006 science fiction novel by English writer Neal Asher.

Those coming through it have been tasked with taking the alien 'Maker' back to its home civilization in the Small Magellanic cloud.

From those who get through, agent Cormac learns that the Maker civilization has been destroyed by pernicious virus known as the Jain technology.

This raises questions: Why was Dragon, a massive bioconstruct of the Makers, really sent to the Polity; why did a Jain node suddenly end up in the hands of someone who could do the most damage with it?

Meanwhile, an entity called the Legate is distributing toxic Jain nodes ...and a renegade attack ship, The King of Hearts, has encountered something very nasty outside the Polity itself ...