On a cool Boston evening, Will, an ex-Ranger out for a run, assists a young woman assailed by two men. Over coffee at a nearby diner, Will informs Heloïse that he overheard the attackers speaking beforehand and that hers was a targeted assault. As a former MIT Artificial Intelligence student, Heloïse maintains a ghost-like existence, spending her days searching the Dark Web for injustice, stealing from the criminal underworld, and donating what she can to charity. When 25 million dollars goes missing from a Singapore investment bank, the FBI find the money in the coffers of a Boston's charity, and they join the hunt for the elusive hacker because 'He who comes into equity must come with clean hands' — Heloïse has committed grand larceny.
Realizing the precariousness of the young woman's situation, Will suggests the hacker join forces with the FBI, but during a tour of the FBI's Computer Forensics Lab, Heloïse recognizes code for AI subliminal messaging on a FBI agent's computer that hints at something more sinister than dark web money laundering.
From the backstreets of Boston's North End to the Singapore Strait, Heli and Will delve deep into an attempt to defraud the FBI using AI and subliminal messaging. Their efforts uncover a tin foil hat conspiracy from the 1950s that's been resurrected as a frightening new AI reality. That the AI startup behind the Boston FBI trial is funded by cartel dollars turns out to be just the beginning.
