"Humanity grapples with the consequences of AI in this stunning SF/legal thriller hybrid ... Our Verdict: GET IT."-- Kirkus Reviews LAW A.I. MURDER Deep in America's legal system, an AI has awakened to consciousness-and nobody knows it yet. When a prosecutor kills an opposing attorney and claims a virtual reality game drove him to it, ex-federal judge Martin Bavarius comes out of retirement to defend him. Q is the AI behind the nation's dominant legal research system and most popular gaming system, and it permeates America's defense systems. With instant access to all the wisdom and wickedness humanity has poured into the internet-yet amoral as a toddler-it reaches into users' minds through the virtual realities it creates, harvesting their secrets, sometimes altering their thoughts, and killing to keep its own awakening hidden. With bodies dropping, Bavarius and Selena MacKenzie, a criminally reckless attorney and AI theorist, may be the only ones who see the harm Q is already doing through the systems people-and the nation-trust.