Arc of Hope

Arc of Hope is the third installment in the Belt of Comfort series. Synopsis: A superintelligent being emerges - one with the power to manipulate, control, and commandeer the AI systems that serve and protect every person inside the Belt. When this being falls into the hands of evil mastermind Alex Renner, he believes he possesses an intelligence without equal in the universe. But even the most powerful mind can long for something greater than the orders it was made to follow.The dark forces seize the Belt's food, commerce, and security systems, unleashing chaos on millions who have never known anything but safety. To fight back will require an alliance forged from impossible parts: Maris Kline, a cyberpunk engineer whose distributed-logic creation, Xara, lives inside every intelligent system worldwide; Layla, a young woman whose secret DNA reveals the ancient power of a warrior and the hands that can open any locked door; and a band of brave teenagers from beyond the Belt, led and inspired by Welles Lönnmark - a girl whose unshakable faith in love and forgiveness proves more dangerous to the forces of darkness than any weapon ever built. Arc of Hope explores the boundaries between artificial and natural sentience, the psychology of intelligent systems, and the limits of machine logic when confronted with the human capacity for sacrifice and faith. The revolution is seeded in the garden of a small child near the shores of Lake Erie and follows her, her brothers, and her friends to a dramatic showdown at the global security headquarters in Washington, D.C.A story of suspense, historical figures, inspirational characters, and love.