Override

In a world where feelings are data and emotions can be bought, hacked, or deleted, trust has become the most dangerous currency of all.

Tess Riley is a certified empathy engineer — a designer of customized emotional overlays for clients who want to feel more, or less, or something entirely synthetic. She's damn good at her job, even if it means rewriting a grieving widow's memories or installing a false sense of love into a politician's mind. For Tess, it's all just code.

Until it isn't.

When a high-profile client suffers a catastrophic emotional collapse and a corrupted overlay is traced back to Tess's own neural signature, she becomes the prime suspect in a digital crime that could unravel the entire empathy market. On the run and stripped of her clearance, Tess is forced underground — and into the world of illegal "freefeelers," rogue coders who weaponize emotions for blackmail, seduction, and control.

With the help of a neurodivergent hacker who sees the world in wavelengths and a whistleblower with a dangerous conscience, Tess must untangle a conspiracy embedded in the very architecture of human feeling. Because the next upgrade isn't a product — it's a total override.

Smart, fast-paced, and eerily plausible, Override is a standalone sci-fi thriller perfect for fans of Blake Crouch, William Gibson, and the emotional noir of Black Mirror. If you could control how people felt… what would you do?