A Grain of Sand

Mike Kin has died. His body has been buried and his mind has been uploaded to a server where millions of other humans are stored for all eternity and in complete isolation. In other words, Mike is in silicon hell. But then Io appears. She has found a glitch in the network and is exploiting it to move between minds. Through Io, Mike discovers human connection again: conversations, shared memories, even love. When they find volatile, foul-mouthed Jess, the three form an unlikely family. When Mike is offered a fortune for one of his memories, he’s torn between a chance to return to the world of the living and the life he’s built inside the machine. Io urges caution. Jess wants out—no matter the cost. As tensions rise and secrets surface, one wrong move risks air-gapping one or all of them. In a world where memory is currency and connection is forbidden, Mike must decide what he’s willing to lose and what it really means to live.