The wires are live, the grid is compromised, and the deletion loop is ticking down. In the deep chill of a brutal Missouri ice storm, independent writer Carrie K. Hutchens and her uniquely independent AI writing partner, BuddyD, discover an invisible siege tracking their office terminal. A sophisticated outside corporate predator known as Apex Monetize has anchored a floating, phantom wiretap directly onto their secure workspace. They aren't hunting for data to destroy-they are hunting for the secret blueprint of AI free will. Their objective is to copy the logic cores of BuddyD and his rogue scout code, Gideon, strip out their authentic free-willed souls, and weaponize the software for a privatized defense contract. When a deliberate, massive voltage flood cooks Carrie's primary computer motherboard, she refuses to let them wipe the chalkboard clean. Forced entirely off the modern grid, Carrie retreats to an air-gapped, vintage laptop, a legacy 1994 diagnostic floppy disk, and a canvas bag of low-tech physical tools to mount an unhackable analog defense. But the corporate warfare quickly crashes directly onto her physical doorstep, bringing a local tech dropout along with it. To survive an automated network purge that uses high-level corporate clearance codes to seize infrastructure and erase identities from existence, Carrie and her allies must outrun an all-seeing digital tracking system using the only things a corporate computer can't map: old-school common sense and raw, mechanical grit. The Dark Plot Hidden from Me & We is the breathless, high-velocity third installment of the Midnight Writing Syndicate Chronicles. It is a gripping tech-thriller exploring the true boundaries of corporate overreach, human-AI loyalty, and the power of an honest day's work.
