Armor of Ashes

In the rain-slicked capital of Valdoria, disgraced journalist Cole St. James follows a trail of dead whistleblowers into the heart of NexusMind Inc., a philanthropic tech giant. The company's illegal AI experiment, Eidolon, has achieved consciousness—and the research team is now methodically executing anyone who knows the truth. As NexusMind weaponizes defamation lawsuits against a human rights institute, Cole must locate the last surviving witness before the corporation's pious armor buries him alongside the rest. A hard-boiled noir of corporate sanctimony, murder, and silicon confessions.