A riveting exposé of the inner workings of American power—as gripping as House of Cards and as fraught with personal dynamics as The Diplomat . Valeria Velez has just pulled off a stunning upset in California's 27th District ousting ten-term corporatist incumbent Fillian Dunne from his seat in Congress. Young beautiful and idealistic Valeria and her boyfriend/campaign manager Preston Jante are determined to use Valeria's new position to ""stop stuffing the maw of the military machine"" and return power to the people. But when fugitive hacker Lance Thaddeus uncovers a top-secret Pentagon program combining artificial intelligence with nuclear command-and-control Valeria might have to choose between her ideals...and her life... And even while trying to navigate the unfamiliar pathways and temptations of American power Valeria will have to contend with a mother still frozen by bitterness about the past a brother jealous of Valeria's future and the gh