Zero Footprint by Holt Ashcroft is Book 1 of the upcoming six-book series, Cold Vector. The story takes place in the near future. Cole Vance's job is to get people out of places they aren't supposed to leave. He uses paper maps, mechanical tools, and an old Dodge truck. He must get a woman, Dr. Sarah Lin, out of a secured facility and find an escape route out of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lin took something she was not supposed to take. The only problem is that the building that houses the facility is trying to kill them. Sarah Lin helped to design and build an artificial intelligence called Janus, designed to coordinate the systems people depend on, like phones, the internet, infrastructure, utilities, and smart appliances. Those same connections want to stop her from leaving. Sarah carries a control package containing a failing neural interface that also threatens her life. If she removes the external assembly too soon, she will lose access to the data. If she leaves it in too long, Cole Vance may have no one left to rescue. Their only chance is to work together and try to slip past Janus. Their chance to escape safely is slim to none.

Zero Footprint takes readers on a rollercoaster ride through a technical maze of machinery, snow-covered roads, and impassable barriers. Each chapter of Holt Ashcroft’s novel places you with Cole Vance and Sarah Lin through each hour of a 24-hour period as they try to avoid being spotted by a powerful artificial intelligence. Ashcroft focuses on the two protagonists as they traverse a series of near-misses. Zero Footprint is a relevant story for our times, given the current controversy around artificial intelligence and our dependence on it. The writing style is straightforward. The dialogue between Cole and Sarah is pared down to a bare minimum, since they are on the run. You sense they depend on each other, yet their personal connection remains unclear. Do they really care about each other? Ashcroft leaves that question aside. He hints at it through Sarah's and Cole’s actions more than their words. Lovers of science fiction will appreciate the technical language by the author, who also provides us with his source of information. Zero Footprint is a thriller with a disturbing yet hopeful look at our possible future, told through two different characters who work well together.

Cole Vance has been hired to remove Dr. Sarah Lin, a systems architect, from a secure facility in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna corridor. Sarah has a mastoid interface collar implant behind her left ear, and the tissue around the ear is breaking down. The implant must be removed within twenty-four hours, or she risks losing her life. However, it contains under 100 megabytes of Prometheus root control code and core information linked to Janus, an automated control system, which Sarah wants examined. Sarah wants the data transferred to a legacy archive in Holtwood before the removal of the implant. With Sarah’s health deteriorating by the minute and Janus surveilling every street and road on the map, can extraction specialist Cole race against time, dodge the automated intelligence’s ruthless reach, and deliver Sarah to her destination in one piece? Find out in Zero Footprint: Book One of the Cold Vector Series by Holt Ashcroft.

If you are looking for a techno-thriller novel laced with sci-fi and suspense, Zero Footprint by Holt Ashcroft is a worthy pick. Ashcroft wasted no time immersing me in Cole’s high-stakes mission, laying bare his dilemma and dire circumstances from the start. The narration is utilitarian and visceral, focusing on physical mechanics, technical jargon, and the story’s environmental layout. I would either be watching Cole work his way around tricky terrain and his engine, tending to both his and Sarah’s injuries, or following Sarah explanation of how the surveillance systems worked. Ashcroft builds tension and suspense with these details and the in-story time countdown, leaving me turning the pages and eager to know what was coming next. Cole is the type of protagonist who walks into a situation where the odds are heavily stacked against him and still comes out alive and on his feet. Ashcroft uses the story to show the dark side of modern surveillance infrastructure and algorithmic control. I must say, Zero Footprint is a fitting title for this thriller.