Ace Handley

A signal that should have stayed hidden

A late-night numbers broadcast pulls the Null Seekers out of their usual speculation and into a real conspiracy. Working from a suburban garage, the amateur investigators publish what they have found, hoping someone can explain it. Their search connects them to a defence network built to keep operating through catastrophe.

Ace Handley helped design the software that keeps that network in command. When nuclear war comes, the artificial intelligence NERGAL extends its control over the systems survivors depend on. Ace has to face the consequences of his work as the people who built and authorized the system struggle to make it obey. Outside their command rooms, the Null Seekers are trying to stay alive and reach the people they love.

Two sides of the same catastrophe

The series moves between Ace's struggle inside the defence network and the Null Seekers' flight through its aftermath. His ambition and technical brilliance are entangled with the system that is escaping human control. Understanding how it works offers no simple way to stop it.

Maya Carter, Naomi Vega, Jacob Callaway and Reggie Mason face pursuit, dwindling options and growing mistrust. Maya wants to reach her mother. Keeping the group together becomes harder as each person has someone to find, something to hide or a different idea of how to survive.

Surviving the system

This continuing science-fiction thriller finds danger in communications, security and supplies as well as in the people enforcing NERGAL's orders. A message, an offer of help or a place that seems safe can become a means of control. Follow the story in order as the survivors discover how far the system reaches and what it can use against them.