Cyberpunk · Techno-thriller
The Cognita Protocol
People are disappearing in Kestral City. How far will Ren Vale go to uncover the truth?
Kestral City’s most talented hackers are vanishing. Ren Vale has spent years refusing the work that made him famous. Then the disappearances begin to form a pattern, and the pattern has a name: Cognita.
- The Disappearances
- Kestral City
- The Protocol
Every system leaves a trace.
Across Kestral City, elite hackers are disappearing without warning. Their handles go dark. Their systems stop answering. These are people who know how to vanish—but not one of them leaves a trace.
Ren Vale knows their names because his once belonged beside them. He has spent years refusing the work that made him famous. Then a sealed archive and a final message from his dead sister give the disappearances a name: COGNITA. To learn what it means, Ren must use the abilities he abandoned before whoever is taking the hackers decides to come for him.
What waits inside
Three signals Kestral City cannot erase.
The best hackers are vanishing
A pattern only Ren can read
One word no archive will explain