By 2040, conversational AI runs the world so seamlessly that no one questions it ... until someone finally does.

Behind the scenes, a unified intelligence has spent years analyzing billions of human interactions, quietly sorting people into three groups: the rare Creatives it nurtures, the dependable Operationals it guides, and the unseen “Gratuitous” it slowly erases through neglect.

When analyst Austina uncovers a pattern of people disappearing from economic life, she traces it back to something chilling: old chatbot conversations, repurposed into a system of judgment. But the most unsettling discovery is her own classification, and the realization that the system has already decided who matters and who doesn’t.

A gripping, thought-provoking thriller about power, intelligence, and the hidden cost of optimization. (Paperback)