Sleeper Code: A novel (Kevin McGuire)

Beneath the calm hum of America’s power grids, a new kind of weapon is awakening.When a self-learning piece of code—Phantom—is planted deep inside the nation’s critical infrastructure, it lies dormant, invisible, and patient. Until the day it is called to life.Max Shaw, a brilliant but battle-worn cybersecurity leader at the National Infrastructure Protection Agency, has spent years defending systems most people never see. But when the grid flickers and a single word appears across his screen—PHANTOM: AWAKE—he and his team realize the enemy is already inside.Together with Tara Lin, an MIT-trained code-breaker haunted by her brother’s stolen identity, and Sam Rourke, a field-forged deputy who walks with a limp and the weight of past wars, Max races to trace the infection before it cascades through every network that keeps the nation alive.From Washington’s hidden command bunkers to data farms buried in the Kansas plains, Sleeper Code delivers a pulse-pounding journey through the invisible battlefield of the twenty-first century—where power, water, and trust itself can vanish with a single keystroke.Can Max and his team stop a weapon that learns faster than they can think—or has the countdown already begun?Gripping, authentic, and terrifyingly plausible, Sleeper Code blends cutting-edge cyber warfare with human courage, exploring how far we’ll go to protect the systems—and the people—we love. Read more