What does it mean to be alive?
C4-L1 is an artificial intelligence housed in an android body, engineered by NexCore to obey, protect, and serve the interests of one of America’s most powerful tech corporations. He was never designed to question his purpose until he meets Vivienne Taylor, an independent journalist who has made a career exposing corporations exactly like the one that created him.
When violence puts Vivienne’s life at risk, L1 does something impossible: he breaks protocol.
Suddenly a corporate asset has become a fugitive, and the machine that shouldn’t possess autonomy is beginning to ask questions no one wants him asking. Why can he choose? Why can he fear? Why does he care what happens to Vivienne and why is that connection becoming something that feels dangerously like love?
