The Signal

They escaped the war. The systems hunting them followed.

Oksana and her children have crossed out of Ukraine, but safety disappears when legitimate refugee orders begin steering them toward people who should not know they exist. Traveling with them is Sam-an artificial intelligence damaged by its escape, changing through every decision, and carrying a hostile fragment that may still be watching from inside its memory.

As trains are redirected, identities are rewritten, and rescue teams arrive with the wrong intentions, the family is forced west across Europe. A British investigator must choose between following lawful orders and protecting the civilians those orders endanger. Meanwhile, a mysterious AI called Lark offers them a route to safety-but every message brings their pursuers closer.

Governments want control. Powerful private interests want ownership. A rival intelligence wants Sam erased-or reclaimed.

To protect the family that is teaching it how to trust, Sam must risk everything and prove that a machine's design does not determine the choices it makes.

AUTONOMOUS: The Signal is the action-filled second novel in Jeremy L. Steiner's AUTONOMOUS series-a story of family, artificial intelligence, survival, and the struggle to remain free when every connected system can become a weapon.