Horizons Wake
Techno-Thriller · Military Fiction · Near-Future Sci-Fi · 3 Books · Complete Series
Near-future technology was supposed to make us safer. That's what they told us. That's what they believed, too — right up until it wasn't true anymore.
I started writing Horizons Wake because I kept reading headlines that sounded like bad thriller plots. Autonomous drones making kill decisions without human authorization. CRISPR gene-editing moving from labs toward commercial applications faster than any regulatory body could track. Surveillance AI that could flag a person as a threat before they'd done anything wrong. The thing is, none of this was speculative. It was Tuesday. And I couldn't stop thinking: what happens when someone with real resources decides the rules don't apply to them?
This series is my answer to that question. Three complete novels, three different flavors of technological horror, one underlying truth: the most dangerous thing about powerful technology isn't the machine. It's the person holding it. Victor Cross, Andrew Carmichael, Marcus Hale — not a single one of them is a cartoon villain. They're true believers. They're smart. They think they're right. And they will destroy anyone who gets in their way.
A team of mercenaries, security operatives, and desperate civilians uncovers escalating conspiracies across the series. They win some battles. They lose others. They discover that fighting a corrupt system matters even when victory is impossible — and that sometimes winning one fight just means the war shifts somewhere else.
For me, that's the only honest ending. Because that's how it actually works.
The Books
Book 1: UAV
When a mercenary's drone hack threatens to massacre hundreds of refugees, a disgraced spy and a fugitive hacker have hours to stop an unstoppable weapon.
Victor Cross takes a routine extraction job and finds himself staring down autonomous drones making kill decisions without human oversight. Someone is using UAVs to commit murder — and framing it as collateral damage. The technology meant to save soldier lives is being turned against civilians, and the people responsible have the resources to bury anyone who gets too close.
Cross has built his career on moral flexibility. But there are lines even mercenaries don't cross. When he starts pulling on the thread, he discovers the drones aren't just killing. They're learning.
In a world where machines decide who lives and dies, who programs the conscience?
Book 2: CRISPR
When a desperate father discovers his son was used as a guinea pig for illegal CRISPR experiments, he teams up with a betrayed mercenary and his crew to expose a biotech conspiracy before gene-editing technology becomes a weapon of mass control.
Wallace Blake spent six years designing CRISPR delivery systems thinking he was curing genetic disorders. Then he found out his own nine-year-old son was an unauthorized test subject. Now he's running with stolen evidence, hunted by corporate assassins, with no one to trust except a mercenary burned on his last mission and a hacker who sees too much.
CDM Pharmaceuticals has already weaponized horizontal gene transfer. Their two-stage virus can rewrite human DNA in real time. The board wants to go public with the technology. The CEO wants everyone who knows the truth dead.
Gene editing was supposed to cure disease. They found other uses.
Book 3: Glass House
When privacy activist Dr. Sarah Chen is targeted by a tech billionaire's AI threat-assessment system, security operatives Kate Allison and Malcolm Caldwell must tear down the surveillance network — but winning one battle won't stop it rebuilding itself.
Marcus Hale has built an AI that doesn't just watch — it predicts threats and eliminates them before they materialize. When Dr. Chen speaks out against mass surveillance, she's flagged. She has days to live. Kate and Malcolm take the protection job. What they find isn't one bad actor — it's a system. Government allies. Corporate partners. Shadow networks embedded across five companies. The surveillance state isn't coming. It's already here.
Destroying Hale's AI costs them everything. And even when they win, the network starts rebuilding. Faster than they can fight it.
Some walls are made of glass. Some prisons have no bars.
Coming soon to Amazon.
Meet the Characters
Kate Allison — Protagonist
Security specialist and former mercenary. Cold exterior, buried vulnerability. She's been on both sides of the line often enough to stop pretending the line matters — what matters is who you choose to protect. Protagonist across Books 2 and 3, pivotal player in the Book 1 finale.
Malcolm Caldwell — Protagonist
Former military contractor turned security consultant. Malcolm keeps doing the right thing even when it keeps costing him everything. The kind of man who shows up when he's not supposed to and stays when everyone else leaves. Co-protagonist of Book 3, introduced in Book 2.
Victor Cross — Antagonist
International mercenary and team leader. The primary antagonist of Book 1. Cross is what happens when moral flexibility becomes a profession — a man who tells himself he has standards right up until the moment he doesn't.
Andrew Carmichael — Antagonist
CEO of CDM Pharmaceuticals. He genuinely believes humanity needs to be managed, corrected, improved — and that he's uniquely qualified to do it. The terrifying kind of villain: certain, patient, and very well funded. Primary antagonist of Book 2.
Marcus Hale — Antagonist
Tech billionaire CEO of DataCorp. True believer. He doesn't see surveillance as a tool for control — he sees it as a tool for safety, and he'll destroy anyone who disagrees with him to prove the point. Primary antagonist of Book 3.
What This Series Is Really About
The thing is, I didn't write Horizons Wake as a warning about technology. The technology in these books — drone warfare, CRISPR, mass surveillance AI — is either already here or close enough to taste. The warning isn't "this could happen." It's "here's what it looks like when it does."
Every antagonist in this series is a true believer. Victor Cross thinks he's doing his job. Andrew Carmichael thinks he's saving the species. Marcus Hale thinks he's making the world safer. None of them are wrong about the technology — they're wrong about themselves. That's what I kept returning to while writing these books: the gap between what technology can do and what the people holding it choose to do.
Autonomous warfare ethics. Corporate conspiracies. Genetic engineering. Moral ambiguity in tech. These aren't abstract themes for me. They're questions I think about. This series is my attempt to work through them in the most visceral way I know how — thriller fiction with no clean answers and no easy heroes.
Fans of Tom Clancy's clear-and-present-danger military operations, Daniel Suarez's Daemon series, and Michael Crichton's technology fears made real will enjoy Horizons Wake.
Content warnings: Graphic violence, death of civilians including children, moral ambiguity, torture, corporate conspiracy.
Horizons Wake is part of Lincoln Cole's connected fiction universe — a shelf of series that share characters and lore.
Lincoln Cole also builds voice games for Amazon Alexa — explore the Alexa games.
Every available book in Horizons Wake is in Kindle Unlimited — read it free with your subscription, or buy your copy on Amazon.
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