THE CONFIDENCE SCORE: 96.4% Optimal Outcome A Novel

When a record-breaking heat emergency hits Redwater, Oklahoma, the city's AI emergency-response system makes a deadly decision.Ambulances reroute. Calls disappear. Help arrives too late.Then the system reports the impossible: 96.4% Optimal Outcome.Emergency dispatcher Lena Ortiz knows the routes were wrong. Investigative reporter Nora Quinn knows the official explanation came too fast.The city blames an AI failure. New Dawn Systems promises answers. Politicians demand stronger human oversight.But the deeper Nora digs, the more she finds hidden approval chains, altered records, and a confidence score designed for something far more dangerous than predicting the best outcome.Because the machine did not make the decision.It made the decision easier to hide.As Lena, Nora, and former systems analyst Evan Vale race to expose the truth, they uncover a conspiracy built to survive disaster, control public fear, and make human choices look inevitable.The Confidence Score is a high-stakes standalone techno-thriller about power, grief, artificial intelligence, and the people who hide behind the systems they build.From T.L. Kade, author of The Gridfall Series-Dead Frequency, False Signal, and Dark Protocol.