The Sphenoid Signal

Dr. Stefan Bonk has spent his career trusting what he can see.Then, within a single week, three patients arrive at his rhinology clinic with the same disturbing symptoms: severe headaches, an unusual fishlike odor, fluorescent green drainage, and an abnormality hidden deep within the sphenoid sinus. Each patient recently swam at a different Lake Erie beach.During an urgent operation, Stefan sees tissue move away from his instruments. The surgery saves one patient, but the recording fails to capture what happened. Laboratory testing identifies something unlike any known human pathogen-and then the specimen disappears.Soon, the other patients are missing. Their medical records are erased. A physician in Buffalo reports similar cases before abruptly falling silent. Government officials demand secrecy, claiming that public disclosure would create panic without preventing further infections.But Stefan is no longer certain that secrecy is the greatest danger.His clinical notes are being altered. An artificial-intelligence system seems to be listening even when it is turned off. His colleagues have begun to question his judgment, and Stefan himself cannot explain the gaps in his memory or the strange things he finds written in his own hand.Recorded after the events as a warning-and perhaps as an attempt to preserve his sanity-The Sphenoid Signal is a modern medical-horror novel about an unknown organism, institutional control, artificial intelligence, and a physician who can no longer trust the evidence of his own senses.