Death Reckoning

When the systems meant to save a city begin issuing conflicting orders, certainty becomes the most dangerous weapon. As Hurricane Iris closes on the harbor city of Bellwether, investigator Tamsin Grey is pulled into an emergency shaped by corrupted records, synthetic voices, compromised credentials, and rescue routes that cannot be trusted. Hospitals lose confidence in patient identities. Ferry crews receive convincing but contradictory commands. A tanker disappears from legitimate tracking while bearing down on a crowded evacuation lane. Every digital source points somewhere different-and every person carrying the truth has something to lose. Working with mariners, clinicians, engineers, and reluctant witnesses, Tamsin must build a picture from paper charts, physical bearings, independent clocks, and people willing to challenge authority before obedience becomes catastrophe. But the evidence also forces her to confront an earlier investigation in which her certainty outran the proof. To stop the disaster, Tamsin must act without pretending uncertainty has disappeared. Dead Reckoning is a tense maritime technothriller about manipulated trust, emergency power, and the human judgment that survives when no single source can be trusted on its own.