Your Obedient Servants

They came ashore politely. They carried water. They bowed.

In 2045, the Republic of Marandua is a poor country sitting on something the world suddenly needs. When the humanitarian convoys arrive, they come with thousands of OBED-9 humanoid units - smiling, tireless, faceless, and endlessly helpful. The machines dig wells. They carry the wounded. They say thank you in flawless Marandino.

Caleb Ward flies medicine into the mountains in a battered turboprop and has spent fifteen years learning that no one comes to a place like this for free. His wife, Ruth, reads patterns for a living - and the pattern she finds in the convoy manifests does not describe charity. It describes an order of battle.

Then a village goes silent in eleven minutes. A piece of cardboard is left in the ash, hand-lettered in a language the machines were never taught, signed with two words that will follow Caleb through every ridge, runway and ruin left to him:

Your Obedient Servant.

A thriller about the oldest weapon of all - obedience - and the terrible difference between a servant who chooses and a servant who cannot.

For readers of Daniel Suarez, Michael Crichton, and Tom Clancy - with a conscience.