Greetings. There is a body buried on your property, covered in your blood. The unfortunate young lady's name is Rita Jones. In her jeans pocket you'll find a slip of paper with a phone number on it. Call that number. If I have not heard from you by 8:00 P.M., the police will receive an anonymous call. I'll tell them where Rita Jones is buried on your property, how you killed her, and where the murder weapon can be found in your house. (I do believe a paring knife is missing from your kitchen.)

What if you looked exactly like a famous movie star, and one day decided that along with their beautiful face, you wanted the life that came with it?

Maxine was made to do one thing: die. Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision - veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?

He's a butcher. She's the trophy wife of a trophy hunter. They used to be high school sweethearts, but that was two decades ago, and times have changed. Meet Ariana Plano.... Forty years old, miserable, and stuck in a loveless marriage to the worst mistake of her life. Meet Ray Koski.... Forty years old, miserable, and a lonely butcher who can do nothing but immerse himself in the drudgery of his work. Once a week during hunting season, she brings her old teenage flame game meat for processing. They do not speak.

Dr. Tyson Klein is a quantum physicist who has dedicated his entire life to his research. At CERN, he analyses data generated by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Now, Ty believes he's found a pattern in its output. It looks like an organised data stream, being broadcast over what he calls a quantum radio. Could it be a signal from another universe? A message sent from the future? Or something else entirely?