DUEL TO THE DEATH

A cybersecurity team is forced to cooperate with an omniscient-seeming AI who’s either saving them from mortal danger or setting a diabolical trap.

Having dispatched cyberbully/serial killer Owen Hansen (Man Overboard, 2017), the experts at the little cybersecurity firm High Noon Enterprises are only starting their journey through Hansen’s legacy. Frigg, the apparently all-knowing AI Hansen created—imagine a morally neutral Siri with unlimited power—has somehow managed to blackmail Stuart Ramey into reactivating her. Though Stu is skeptical about Frigg at first, he quickly learns to appreciate what Hansen’s creation can do even if he and his colleagues at High Noon may not approve of her methods. But Frigg’s powers aren’t the only thing that makes her a danger. Graciella Miramar, Hansen’s former money manager, is determined to acquire Frigg whatever the cost and suspects Stu may be the key. In spite of her mild-mannered appearance, Graciella is as ruthless as her father, drug lord Felix Duarte, whose disfigured face has made him known as El Pescado. Graciella has spent her whole adult life waiting to rise above serving as a money-laundering front for El Pescado and come into her own power. As Graciella sets a trap, Frigg continuously updates threat risks to notify Stu of the increasing danger Graciella poses. With threat levels rising fast, Stu has no choice but to get High Noon colleagues Ali, B., and Cami to agree to stop Graciella from her hostile takeover.

The introduction of an AI as a more substantive character will likely divide fans, though Jance sews early seeds about the questionable morality of her power that are likely to come to a head as her voice grows stronger.