Exalta

The system doesn't hunt. It sorts. When you fall outside the parameters, it edits you out.A man survives in the fog beneath Exalta's corporate platform by staying uncounted. He runs packages he doesn't open, renews his identity in shrinking access windows, and knows that when his suffix expires, so does he. Then the system stops ignoring him. Every gate opens. Every checkpoint glows green. But is it a reward, or a leash?Liam Kestrel signs disposal orders for people like him. When a surveillance file crosses his desk marked DISPOSED and the subject is still breathing, he should close it.Instead, he opens a door.Now the system that sorts people into categories has two new problems it can't file.No firing squads. No gulags. Just paperwork, and the silence after it's filed.For readers of Never Let Me Go and Kafka.