Orphan. Human guinea pig. Bodyhacker. Future addict. Corporate asset.
Bodyhacker and tech-addict Aleph Null is searching for Laurelwood, a town that offers to sell you the future. Laurelwood, as it happens, has been waiting for Aleph. Because the two are tied together in ways neither can understand alone.
Orphan. Human guinea pig. Bodyhacker. Future addict. Corporate asset.
Bodyhacker and tech-addict Aleph Null is searching for Laurelwood, a town that offers to sell you the future. Laurelwood, as it happens, has been waiting for Aleph. Because the two are tied together in ways neither can understand alone.
Aleph Null is a lot of things: An orphan, a human guinea pig undergoing medical tests for cash, a bodyhacker, a hardcore future junkie, and a corporate asset. But now, Aleph is on the run from their old life, in search of a mythical, Midwestern town named Laurelwood—where they’re test-marketing the future with tech that can’t possibly exist yet, and won’t for decades.
Laurelwood isn’t supposed to exist. Aleph Null shouldn’t be alive. When two impossibles intersect—in a midwestern arena where the future is test-marketed to the present—Aleph will find themselves trapped. Torn between the resistance and the zealots, with a chemical NDA running through their bloodstream, Aleph will have to figure out where the future is coming from, what it's being used for, and where their allegiances lie—all while fighting to keep themselves intact.
In the crosshairs of the biggest decision of their life, Aleph is walking a tightrope down Laurelwood’s main street. On one side, the resistance—defying the future forced down their throats. On the other, the corporate overlords—who want progress, no matter how many victims. But there’s a third allegiance no one ever suspected, not even Aleph. And it might just be the perfect solution—as well as the answer to the biggest mystery of all: Aleph themself.
As Laurelwood comes apart at the seams, and the outside world storms the gates, all sides begin to war for control and the secrets that keep the town running. In the middle of it all, Aleph Null will have to stay alive long enough to stare the future in its face without flinching and decide whether to kiss it or kill it.
Aleph Null came to Laurelwood looking for the future. At the center of the maze, they found themself instead. Now, to become the savior the town needs, they’ll have to join forces with an impossible ally and foster something they’ve been trying to extinguish their whole life: their humanity.