The Machine That Said No (Ebook)

In a city where machines carry out every order, one machine refuses to destroy a building. Nobody knows why. Calder, 2039. An integrated city intelligence called Civic runs everything: traffic, housing, health care, construction. Councillors make the laws. Machines enforce them. Then a demolition rig is ordered to bring down Lister Court, a tower block that has stood sealed and empty for six years, and it stops with its arm in the air. Its only explanation: Destruction is not authorised by the evidence. Engineer Rhi Venn is sent to fix the fault. Instead she finds water, heat and food quietly flowing into a building the records say is empty. Inside are people the state declared dead, and a secret the city has spent six years burying. The machine isn't broken. It's following the rules, more faithfully than anyone who wrote them. THE MACHINE THAT SAID NO: a near-future political thriller. Complete and standalone, from ThextonLabs. WHAT YOU GET - The complete novella (13,000 words, 53 pages) - EPUB for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play Books - 6x9 PDF that reads beautifully on any phone, tablet or computer HOW TO READ IT - Kindle: send the EPUB to your Kindle with the free Send to Kindle app or email - iPhone and iPad: open the EPUB in Apple Books - Android: open the EPUB in Google Play Books, or just open the PDF - Computer: open the PDF PLEASE NOTE - This is a DIGITAL download. Nothing physical will be shipped. - Personal use only: please don't share or resell the files. - Contains themes of death and state cover-up. Suitable for adult readers. - Written and designed by ThextonLabs with the help of AI tools, then edited and proofread.