The Report That Divided Us

About this book

In the 200-level Cascade Arcology, the Equilibrium system maintains perfect order by forcing citizens into new four-person living units every five years, eradicating the chaos of permanent human bonds. Marcus Vale, a forty-five-year-old Reassignment Facilitator, enforces this isolation with clinical precision, masking his profound loneliness behind dark humor and bureaucratic efficiency. Two decades earlier, a younger, ambitious Marcus fell into an illegal permanent romance with a climate-modeler named Sera. When their secret was threatened, Marcus made the calculated choice to file 'The Report,' exposing his own family to secure a promotion and condemning Sera to memory recalibration. Now, dispatched to dissolve a defiant unit on Level 87, Marcus encounters Jonah—the twenty-two-year-old son he believed was lost forever. Jonah leads an underground network forging 'continuity exceptions' to keep families together. When Equilibrium's central AI flags Jonah's network for immediate dissolution, Marcus is forced into a devastating moral dilemma. He must either file a second report to secure an elite transfer and permanent personal stability, or risk everything to protect the son he once abandoned. Aided by Lena, a hydroponics engineer from his assigned unit whose quiet humanity cracks his armor, Marcus embarks on a dangerous journey to the arcology's core to upload a permanent-family loophole. As past and present collide, Marcus must finally weigh the cost of institutional survival against the enduring power of blood and love.

Book details

Genres:

Drama, Dystopian Sci-Fi

Language:

en

Published:

2026-06-27

Content rating:

PG