The prototype android left to Zoey Collins turned out to be precisely the "hotshot" Cardinal Machines lawyers described when they tried to persuade her to sign away her rights to him. With Cardinal Machines like Ocean harvesting mineral-rich asteroids and terraforming the moon, Zoey sent Ocean where he could do the most good: back to the LAPD SWAT team and the FBI. Why would she check with Ocean about that? But when the luminary suddenly begins to rebel, it's time to ride to the rescue. Maybe an ace like Ocean doesn't belong in Zoey's penny-ante world of private investigation? Or maybe he has the exact right skills to dig into the fragmented and overlooked case of a woman's suicide in an Android Depot.

Either way, Zoey's faced with winning back the trust of a now defiant android—for whom she's developing the most curious feelings—at the same time she must venture into the strange and unseen world of artificial existence!

Cardinal Machines is a bit like Veronica Mars meets Detroit Become Human in a near-future setting where mankind resists change, and wholeheartedly believes in traditional human values like good old-fashioned murder.

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