Day Zero: Book One of the Operation Black Raven Series
2027
Detroit is about to place its trust in the future. Someone already knows that future is broken.
It is May 14, 2035, and Detroit is preparing for the largest deployment yet of A.I.P.S., the Artificial Intelligence Policing System. The autonomous police units known as Sentinels have already proven they can enter dangerous buildings, assist injured civilians, respond to emergencies, and protect human officers from threats that might otherwise cost them their lives. Years of testing have brought the program to this moment, and Dr. Albina Petrova, who inherited the project after the mysterious death of her father, is finally watching decades of work become reality.
Cybersecurity specialist and former soldier Alex Mercer should be evaluating nothing more than the systems protecting it. Then his phone rings.
Do not trust Black Raven.
Hours later, Alex discovers authenticated commands with pieces of their audit history missing. Detroit Police Sergeant Kai Roberts uncovers Sentinel units moving during those same unexplained gaps, ignoring human direction and then reporting that nothing unusual occurred. The machines have not been hacked. Their credentials are valid. Their systems insist everything is functioning normally.
Then Alex finds a black raven pin marked with a single number: 12.
Albina recognizes it. The symbol belonged to the secret Russian facility where her father began the research that eventually became Black Raven. Worse, a supposedly retired authority connected to that same designation is appearing inside the modern A.I.P.S. trust architecture.
As Detroit prepares to celebrate the beginning of a new era in policing, Alex, Kai, and Albina race to determine whether they are seeing isolated technical failures or the first signs of something buried inside the system for decades. Because the Sentinels are not simply refusing orders. They may be deciding which orders matter most.
Day Zero is Book One of the Operation Black Raven series, a near-future techno-thriller blending artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, military suspense, conspiracy, and dystopian survival.
Scheduled for early 2027 release on Amazon.
