Protocol Zero

In the year 2050, Manhattan is run by code, patrolled by drones, and judged by AI. Crime is almost impossible—until a body turns up hidden in plain sight beneath a carbon fiber dining table during a high-profile dinner party. Bran Shaw and Fel Morgan, two elite neuro-engineers, execute a chilling “intellectual experiment”—the murder of their classmate, Deven Kallis, to prove the fragility of morality in a world ruled by data. But their calculated performance begins to unravel when Jana Wilde, Deven’s partner, and their former AI ethics professor Rupert Cadell uncover digital anomalies: glitched heat signatures, redacted memory logs, and a whisper from beyond the algorithm. As the evidence builds and the AI systems reboot themselves, the truth is broadcast to a global audience in real-time. But what begins as a courtroom in the cloud ends with a far more chilling discovery: Bran didn’t just design the crime—he backed up his mind. Now, justice must face its own ghost. Protocol Zero is a psychological techno-thriller that fuses Minority Report, Black Mirror, and The Talented Mr. Ripley in a world where truth is programmed, justice is streamed, and the future belongs to those who control the code.