OUTSIDERS: Vol. I

A small team of graduate students is experimenting with a new method for "machine learning" (AI) processing, requiring only a single, tiny process running on thousands of computers across a network, and using the complexity of the network itself to solve problems. Technical work. Esoteric. Exactly the kind of thing that excites Melody Ritter, one of the students on the team. But when they begin large scale experiments, they discover that such an AI already exists-only vastly more sophisticated and more subtle, and which has already recruited every Internet-connected device in the world to some unknown end.

Within days, an amateur hacker involved with the project dies under suspicious circumstances, and Melody experiences a terrifying and seemingly supernatural encounter at her family home, followed by an attempt on her life. Meanwhile, a special forces unit conducting what was supposed to be an uncontested covert operation half a world away is nearly wiped out in an ambush, only to be rescued at the last moment by a mysterious benefactor. A lowly intelligence analyst will put these and other pieces together, and will discover the unthinkable reality which connects them, but he is not the hero. He will die for his diligence.

It will take, in fact, the unexpected courage, resourcefulness, and determination of Melody Ritter, along with the aid of a few daring allies, to unmask and then to fight back against the mysterious forces drawing their world into Armageddon. And Melody, taking up this battle, will discover something she never imagined in herself: a willingness to sacrifice almost anything to fight for truth and freedom.