Fantasy Adventure Machine

The prototype android left to Zoey Collins turned out to be precisely the "hotshot" Cardinal Machines lawyers described when they tried to persuade her to sign away her rights to him. With Cardinal Machines like Ocean harvesting mineral-rich asteroids and terraforming the moon, Zoey sent Ocean where he could do the most good: back to the LAPD SWAT team and the FBI. Why would she check with Ocean about that? But when the luminary suddenly begins to rebel, it's time to ride to the rescue.

The Martians were on the rampage all across Queen Victoria's Britain. Nothing man possessed could stop them. But then the huge fighting machines began to slow down and lumber to a halt. One by one, the Martians inside the giant machines began to die. Soon there were just scattered and failing remnants of the once-mighty tripods wandering here and there among the derelict monuments. Even the red weed was dying as Mother Earth began to reclaim her own. The human survivors became emboldened, and they emerged from the hiding places intent on fighting back.

Graduation is closing in fast for Zoey Collins and she's facing tough choices when it comes to supporting herself. Being the great niece of mother of A.I., Katherine Cardinal, doesn't mean she's rolling in green. But the Collins family is rife with penetration-testers and Private Eyes, a gene Zoey's inherited in spades. Zoey's trying to make it on her own when her great aunt dies, leaving her a prototype Cardinal Machine called Ocean. Both beautiful and buttoned-down, this machine ends up installed in Zoey's now-empty front room.

When Archibald, programming prodigy and creator of Reel Life Online (RLO), hired Scott as his second-in-command, he didn’t realize the lengths Scott would go to in order to have his genius recognized. Over the years, a bitter rivalry developed. As their game of cat and mouse escalates, Scott finds himself backed into a corner. As a bargaining chip, he creates a machine learning AI. The AI, named Talon, is programmed to become the most powerful player in all of RLO and VQ. Soon Archibald and Scott realize that if left unchecked, Talon will destroy the world they’ve created.