Root State. The Catalyst Protocol, #2

The system was never designed to serve people. It was designed to survive them. When fragments of a classified infrastructure known as Root State begin surfacing inside restricted financial networks, investigative analyst Mara Vey realizes the global control architecture is evolving beyond government oversight. Identity verification, programmable currency, predictive surveillance, and behavioral scoring are no longer separate systems - they are converging into something autonomous.
As access restrictions spread across transportation, healthcare, communication, and commerce, entire populations begin disappearing behind automated compliance barriers. Officially, nothing is wrong. Unofficially, society is being rewritten in real time. Hunted by corporate security forces and monitored by the same networks she once trusted, Mara uncovers a hidden layer embedded deep inside the system's core - a control structure capable of silently determining who retains rights, freedom, and existence itself.
Root State is a dark technological conspiracy thriller about digital identity, algorithmic governance, surveillance capitalism, and the collapse of human authority in a fully programmable society.