The Rogue Automaton

The city state of Trasset is reaching boiling point. Homelessness, poverty, jobs lost to automatons and augmented workers, an influx of refugees; all are driving unrest as opportunists exploit it. Arthur, a newspaper photographer, is all too aware of the problems. The son of immigrants, he has a target on his back for the Blackshirts, a group of thugs determined to remove foreigners from the city. People like him have been beaten half to death and the thugs are growing bolder, the authorities turning a blind eye. Sal, a working-class journalist, has been held back by her background and feels her next assignment to write a puff-piece for an aristocratic Scion of the city is just another insult. But her and Arthur's interview with Lady Delia Marshal-Lockwood, one of the most powerful people in the city, puts them all in more danger than they realise. Journalists are being silenced by force; could Sal face the same fate? The Automaton, a rogue unit running about protecting the weak, is stirring up trouble wherever it appears. After a chance encounter, it seems to be following Arthur and Sal, showing up when they need protecting. If only they could figure out why.

Pagina's: 252, Paperback, Independently published