Colony One (The Elderon Chronicles, #1)

by Tarah Benner

We’re pursuing a node of the Bureau for Chaos that’s responsible for hijacking a fleet of self-driving cars. They drove into the crowd after the Yankees won the World Series, killing thirty-two people from five thousand miles away. Before that, the Bureau hacked the blast furnace at an Ohio steel mill. Six workers were killed, and nine were injured. That node was in China, and we took them out.

When I enlisted, people were scared. The Bureau was hijacking air-traffic control and derailing passenger trains. It was terrifying because attacks could be carried out anywhere. The terrorists didn’t even need to enter the country.

“It’s 2075, for cryin’ out loud. People don’t read anymore. They’re only consuming immersive content.”

every set of eyeballs snaps on to me.

There's too much eyeball "snapping" in this book.

“Most of us work here because we’re better with computers than flesh and blood. The hospitality people deal with people. We deal with problems.”

“Trust me . . . Nobody does defense like a trillion-dollar tech company.”

He smells good — some bright citrusy notes from deodorant or cologne.

Rescued, after several hours on the floor of an airlock, bound, beaten & gagged you've just been pulled free from a bots deathgrip around your neck & the resultant gashes on your neck are bleeding badly & more bots are in pursuit ... but yeah, take a moment to note how good this dude smells. Shenanigans