Everyone signed. Nobody read the fine print.
After Operation Harvest Cloud, industrial engineer Knox Ramsey thought the worst was behind him. Then the government came back with a contract.
To protect his son from a federal prosecution he did not deserve, Knox signs a five-year agreement with the Department of the Treasury. On paper, he is attached to the Critical Infrastructure Defense Office. In the fine print, he has been folded into Project Helios, a deniable Treasury-NSA operation built to protect America's critical infrastructure from threats the public will never be allowed to see.
The next battlefield is Flint, Michigan: a city written off by politicians, remembered by industry, and suddenly central to a fight over energy, data, and control. Chinese intelligence is not attacking with missiles. It is using the devices Americans already invited into their homes, the data brokers they never knew existed, and the terms of service nobody reads. Smart televisions. Consumer firmware. Broken privacy laws. Compromised officials. A domestic battery project that could change the balance of power.
Knox understands systems. He knows how they fail. This one was compromised before he ever touched it.
A technically authentic geopolitical thriller for fans of Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, and John le Carre.
