New York City is unraveling and what rises in the ruins will change everything. As the city fractures under corporate withdrawal, political decay, and unchecked crime, power is seized by those willing to act in the shadows. Among them is a young man building a criminal empire with ruthless precision and a calm, calculated grip on the streets. His name is unknown to most but his influence is unmistakable. Charlie Anderson, a newly promoted detective, is assigned to a city spiraling out of control. A botched gun deal thrusts him into a deepening conflict, forcing him to confront a truth he’s not prepared for: the system may already be too broken to save. Across the city, lives collide. In the slums, Sam Jackson, an aging garbage man and tinkerer fights to protect his daughter, JJ, from a world closing in. A woman named Vanessa battles her own secrets, while an AI-generated movie star known as AI-DN blurs the lines between fiction and control. As alliances shift and survival becomes currency, each of them must navigate a city where justice, power, and identity are up for grabs. Dark, gripping, and unflinchingly timely this is a thriller about what happens when a city forgets how to protect its people, and those people decide to protect themselves.