BF1 ORIGINAL FICTION
SHADOW 1.0
In 2068, Kester Redmayne's lifelong AI companion predicts a 98.7% probability that he will murder his seventeen-year-old daughter. Detained and separated from her, Kester must prove that a prediction built on authenticated evidence can still be catastrophically wrong—before the real threat reaches Nora.
ABOUT THE STORY
HIS OWN SHADOW PREDICTS HE'LL KILL HIS DAUGHTER.
In 2068, everyone has a Shadow.
An artificial intelligence bound to its owner for life, a Shadow manages identity, remembers personal history and helps protect society by identifying threats before violence occurs.
For sixteen years, Kester Redmayne has trusted his Shadow, Ash, with almost every aspect of his life.
Until the day it tells him he is going to murder his daughter.
Probability: 98.7%.
Within minutes, Kester is detained. His seventeen-year-old daughter, Nora, is placed under protection. And the AI that knows him better than anyone has become the reason he cannot reach the person he loves most.
But Kester knows something is wrong.
His history contains no pattern of violence against Nora. Yet a sudden arrival of authenticated evidence has transformed him from a devoted father into an apparently imminent threat.
As Kester challenges the information behind the prediction, Nora discovers something unexpected in recordings left by her mother, Alina, who died twelve years earlier.
Six ordinary childhood memories.
A game about catching mistakes.
And a trail pointing towards a buried secret in the history of Shadow technology.
Together, father and daughter begin uncovering a disturbing possibility: an artificial intelligence can follow every rule, verify every signature and still reach a devastating conclusion if someone has manufactured the evidence it trusts.
As their investigation threatens powerful people determined to protect the past, the danger surrounding Nora becomes terrifyingly real.
Now Kester faces an impossible question.
How do you protect your daughter when the system designed to keep her safe believes you are the person she needs protecting from?
SHADOW 1.0 is a gripping, thought-provoking speculative thriller about artificial intelligence, family loyalty, manipulated evidence and the dangerous difference between what a system can prove and what is actually true.