Half-organic, half-mechanical, and driven by vengeance...
Beneath biomechanical upgrades and a titanium cranium built for destruction, Joaquin Herrera is a young veteran on a mission. Once an idealistic soldier, now scarred by war and betrayal, Joaquin wields his enhanced body-and his red eye of justice-in pursuit of the Ghost: the dishonorably discharged Army Colonel who masterminded Operation Ironhead, a black ops project that blurred the line between humanity and machine. Joaquin's office is a chaotic web of whiteboards and intel, pointing to the Ghost's nefarious schemes. But when he stirs up the wrong enemies, the voices in his head start whispering, and reality itself begins to fracture.
The Ghost's plan is still alive. Joaquin won't stop until he shuts it down-for good.
Meanwhile, Agent Martina Lessa is a brilliant but sidelined FBI investigator, buried in the farthest corner of her field office. Her career has stalled thanks to her Special Agent in Charge, but that doesn't stop her from pursuing the truth. BlueMoon, a powerful asset management firm, seems to profit from every disaster, while Black-Sun, a private military company, leaves a trail of destruction across the Americas and beyond. As political bombings and assassinations escalate, Martina begins to suspect an unholy alliance between the two entities. But her investigation takes a chilling turn when she crosses paths with a biomechanical vigilante-Joaquin-and realizes her theories are more horrifying than she imagined.
Together, Joaquin and Martina must unravel a web of corruption, transhumanist horrors, and a conspiracy that threatens countless lives. As they grapple with ghosts-both figurative and literal-and confront their own demons, they'll have to decide whether they're driven by justice, vengeance, or something far darker.
In this action-packed horror thriller, the line between humanity and monstrosity blurs. The cost of failure? The soul of a nation.
A tech-saavy cyborg with too much time on her hands. A quick-thinking detective with a fascinating new case. A mad scientist on the verge of a groundbreaking advancement.
A young girl wants nothing more than to lead an interesting life, but is constantly faced with empty time and incessant boredom. When she turns to computers to pass the time, she quickly finds herself entangled in a world of less-than-legal programming, soon earning a reputation as an exceptional hacker. When she discovers someone else with a mind like hers, it doesn't take long for her to become preoccupied by the mystery of him, and she longs to find out his identity. Unfortunately, a clever international detective is a little too determined to track her down, and a scientist with a disregard for ethics has other plans for her, involving an experiment that he believes could revolutionize humanity, but at what cost?
Three people, three stories, three obsessions, intertwined in this sci-fi tale set in a cyberpunk-inspired world in the year 2120.
What do teenage hacker Kalix Raven, UNBI Agent Rachel Cassanova, and Dr. Rovart Blayne all have in common?
They're all a little obsessed.
(Book 1 of 3)
[Watty's 2022 Shortlist]