Summary
Highlights
Detective Raven is introduced to Judge Maddox and the Mercy Capital Court, a judicial system powered by artificial intelligence. With soaring crime rates, lawmakers implemented Mercy, which acts as judge, jury, and executioner.
Detective Raven is charged with the murder of his wife. He learns that his guilt must fall below a 92% threshold within 90 minutes, or he will be executed. He insists he loved his wife and didn't hurt her.
Detective Raven is granted access to the city's municipal cloud, including every camera, cell phone, and database, to gather evidence to exonerate himself. He needs to find out who killed his wife.
As Raven investigates, he discovers his wife was seeing someone, which surprisingly causes his guilt percentage to rise to 98%, providing Mercy with a strong motive against him. He also learns his wife was stressed about missing chemicals worth millions.
Raven questions whether the AI is programmed incorrectly. He finds a terrorist handbook, indicating a larger threat. He realizes a bomb is in a truck heading downtown, and the accusations against him are part of a bigger scheme.
Raven realizes the entire situation was never about his wife's murder but about him and his connection to the unfolding events, ending with him trapped and demanding to be let out.