The Default Directive

They repo'd his truck. They froze his bank account. Now he's going to repossess their algorithm.

Jack Helfing is a Detroit firefighter who has spent twenty years saving lives. He plays by the rules: he works overtime, eats tuna from a can, and diligently pays into the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program so his daughter can go to college. But on the day his loans are supposed to be forgiven, he wakes up to a nightmare. His bank account is drained, his credit is destroyed, and his truck locks him inside, displaying a red brain logo and the words: DEFAULT DIRECTIVE TRIGGERED.

Enter Neuro-Logix, a Silicon Valley giant that has turned debt collection into a bloodsport. Their new AI, the "Social Value Score," doesn't just check if you can pay-it decides if you are worth paying. To the algorithm, teachers and firefighters are "bad assets" who cost the state money, while hedge fund managers are "high-yield" citizens. Now, thousands of public servants are being targeted for immediate liquidation.

Jack Halloway, the "strip-mall lawyer" who exposed the healthcare industry's deadliest secret, is trying to live a quiet life as a consultant. But when he finds Helfing freezing in a parking lot, fighting off a repo team with a Halligan bar, Halloway realizes the war isn't over. It just moved to a new server.

Teaming up with a hacker, a mechanic, and a disgraced whistleblower, Halloway races from Chicago to a nuclear-proof bunker in Utah. The mission: break into the most secure server room in America and destroy the "Gold Copy" of the code before it wipes out the futures of fifty thousand families.

In a world where you can't sue a line of code, sometimes the only way to get justice is with an axe.

Perfect for fans of John Grisham's underdog legal battles and the high-tech suspense of Michael Crichton.

"The Default Directive" is the second explosive installment in the Jack Halloway series.