The year is 2399. After a rare manuscript of Archimedes resurfaces in a private London auction, mathematical prodigy and petty thief Gordon Marlow is outed by his U.N. state-stamped algorithm, targeted, and now on the run for his life while attempting to solve the Grand Unified Theory—that is, if governing Alpha Omega Strike Teams don’t capture him first, as they did his father, renowned mathematician Severin Marlow—a man wrongly accused and made an example of in the public square as a convicted research renegade and partisan insurgent.

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Gordon works as a short-order chef, daydreams of complex formulas, and lives in a resource-starved world where a corrupt United Nations governs during a time of major upheaval. People starve openly on the streets, synthetic nutrition is the most sought-after black-market item, and the New World Order has yet to provide any lasting assurances of basic, minimal security.

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While the United Nations makes hostile contingency plans for overtaking weaker, regional, and less-fortified powers with Termination Mandate #5623—"The U.N. Mercy Extermination Policy"—"merciful" regional genocides begin.

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As the only man who can solve and apply the ever-elusive and powerful Grand Unified Theory into a dominant weapons system, short-order chef Marlow learns that both his mother and twin sister may still be alive, despite being convinced by the state that they were killed.

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Endeavoring to bring them back to safety, Marlow ultimately joins forces with Dr. Hun of the Counter Revolutionary Guard, who champions him to join the resistance, continue his father’s work, and take up his rightful place in the fight.