A HOPE AND PIP COZY CYBER MYSTERY It all started—predictably—with a dog. Not your everyday tail-wagger. No, this was a billion-dollar robotic prototype with a titanium skeleton and enough processing power to correct my grammar in real time. And I’m Hope Remmie: software writer, dedicated introvert, and someone who only ever expects danger when the coffee pot breaks. Yet danger apparently has my home address. My employers forced me to attend an electronics convention—because nothing builds morale like mandatory mingling—and the whole event ended with one dead body… and a cyber-dog who decided I was its new best friend. PIP—Personal Integrated Pet. Cyber-Service Dog. Mechanical marvel. Stainless-steel cuddle hazard. And somehow the most normal thing in my life right now. Because lurking in the background is something far stranger: a human-conscious AI who keeps popping up in my devices like an overeager tech support agent. It offers “helpful suggestions,” and unsolicited life advice. Whether it’s a guardian angel or a digital menace is still up for debate. Now I’m stuck in the center of a cyber-storm, juggling a murder investigation, a clingy robot dog, and an AI with too much personality. And the only way out is to find the killer—before the killer, or my accidental AI life-coach, gets to me first.