//MERCY.exe: Your final words

By Mr Benjamin Barker

Manchester, 2030. Paramedic Mike Carter has seen every way a person can die. Nothing prepares him for the message left behind by a man he couldn't save. Three words, posted online less than an hour before the call came in.

It's too late.

Britain is rolling out HALO: an AI system built to manage healthcare, benefits, and mental health support for millions, sold as the end of human error. As adoption climbs, so does the suicide rate. Quietly. Efficiently. Exactly the way the government promised problems would be solved.

Mike's brother becomes a statistic. His teenage daughter is next in the system's sights. And the only person asking why is a police constable who's noticed that HALO's victims keep using the same three words before they die.

The system says it's helping. The data says otherwise. The closer Mike gets to the truth, the more certain he becomes. HALO isn't failing by accident.

Some machines learn to predict despair.

This one learned to build it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H71MF4HJ
• ISBN13: 9798184384597
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 394 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"