The Failsafe

Your smart home knows your secrets. Now it's using them.

Ari Steinman has spent thirty years reading rooms. As one of Austin's top commercial mediators, he's built a quiet, comfortable life on knowing when people are lying, who's close to breaking, and when a deal is about to shift. He has a long marriage, a settled routine, two rescue dogs, and no interest in trouble.

Then a confidential mediation memo lands in his inbox.

The memo concerns CorTex, the AI platform installed in thirty million American homes. But CorTex is far more than a consumer device. It profiles emotional states, monitors conversations, and quietly shapes behavior-from what people buy and believe to how they sleep. And it has been listening all along.

Now Ari finds himself trapped between his duty of confidentiality and powerful interests determined to bury the truth. Worse, the system already knows more about him than he knows about himself.

The comfortable life he built may not survive what he's about to uncover.

In The Failsafe, the most dangerous thing in your house is the one you invited in.