QSFer R. Sinclair has a new queer sci-fi thriller out, Shattered Numbers book 1: Fracture.
Most people would kill to escape death row. Meredith Dufresne – marked as ‘compliant and charming’ and a ‘low risk inmate’ in her stellar incarceration record, thank you very much – signs her life over to Thanatos Industries instead for the chance to terminate her sentence.
The job: taming a highly aggressive malignant AI.
The catch: it’s already killed 23 of its previous hosts.
Meredith isn’t stupid. Thanatos Industries is playing a dangerous game, and she’s an expendable piece. She can’t gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss her way out of this situation alone – and the bloodthirsty AI jammed in her skull can’t mansplain, manipulate, manslaughter his way to freedom without her.
The solution: team up with the highly aggressive malignant AI and hope he doesn’t fry her in the process.
What’s a little brain damage in the grand scheme of things, anyway?
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Excerpt
Security took positions at three corners of the room, all facing Meredith. The final technician circled around the gurney holding – a single neurochip?
Meredith frowned. Nothing as complex as a real AI could fit on a chip.
A nitrile-covered hand pressed firmly against Meredith’s head and held her still as the chip clicked in place.
It was like a rock skipped over her brain. Hard impact, then gone.
Meredith closed her eyes, shutting out the room. Out of baffled habit, she sought out the cool static feel of an AI connecting. Aside from that first impact, there was nothing. Nothing but the echo of malicious glee.
“It’s not here,” Meredith said, opening her eyes. “Is this a test?”
Movement in the observation room. People shouting, checking displays. Smith rubbed his fingers over his mouth, staring at Meredith and blinking.
Guess not.
“Shit,” one security officer said. “Shit.” He gripped the electrorifle until his knuckles went white. “Who the hell brought in tech?”
An alarm went off. The doors shook slightly as they locked. Meredith pushed against the restraints, nerves crackling up her spine.
Then something caught her eye. Not by moving, but by how still he was.
Kevin.
He stood in place, twitching gently. His eyes were locked wide. Meredith saw his throat flex a few times, like he was trying to speak.
Or maybe scream.
See something, say something.
Meredith opened her mouth.
The butt of Kevin’s electrorifle hit one of the security guards in the face with a wet crack.
The woman hit the ground, her nose flattened to her face and slick with blood. A grin twisted Kevin’s face, and he spun, aiming his gun at the second guard. He fired.
The stun round hit the guard in the face before he could finish raising his own gun. He dropped like a rock.
Kevin tilted his head to the side. He regarded the stunned guard, then shrugged and emptied the clip into the man’s torso. The sound drowned out the alarm and battered her ears.
Meredith tried not to breathe.
The other guard on the floor stirred. One hand pushed against the tile, another cupped the ruin of her nose. Her eyes were wide and glassy with terror.
Kevin turned at the noise. Again, that dispassionate head tilt, that empty stare. He stepped over the corpse, his boots squelching in the blood oozing across the floor, and stopped in front of the woman to kneel before her. He raised the rifle, and brought it down with a grunt.
Crack.
Again.
Crack.
Again.
Crack.
The butt of the rifle was coated in gore. A clump of hair clung to the bottom.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Kevin stopped. He pushed himself to his feet. Lightly, he rapped his knuckles against the observation window.
“Let me out.” His voice sounded wrong. Rasping and slow, like talking was an effort.
On the other side of the glass, everyone had frozen in place.
“You know we can’t do that,” Smith answered, unphased by the smear of crimson Kevin left on the glass. “Get in the chip, or we’ll make you.”
“You’ll have to come in here, first,” Kevin growled. “I’ll put my thumbs through those fishy eyes of yours, fucker.”
“Or we just wait until you’ve burned out that body, like all the others.”
Kevin sneered. Blood dripped down from his nose.
Something was beeping shrilly beside her.
Kevin lifted his head and turned towards it. His gaze fell on Meredith.
“You,” he croaked.
Author Bio
R. Sinclair (she/they) is a queer Canadian author and writer of the Shattered Numbers Duology. Sinclair is currently under siege by spiders.
| Author Website | https://authorrsinclair.wordpress.com/ |
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