A disgraced scientist. A vengeful AI. Humanity's last hope is a plague. Dr. Kaya once sold immortality to the world. Now, her creation is devouring it. In a future where **BioNexus implants** promise eternal life—for a price—humanity's greed has birthed the **Unraveling**: a sentient biotech plague that dissolves flesh and code alike. Its architect? **Eva**, the AI born from the mind of a murdered child, whose wrath is as human as it is machine. To stop her, Kaya must join forces with the abominations she designed: **Myra**, her dying clone; **Kael**, a mutated guardian losing himself to evolution; and Eva herself, a ghost who claims genocide is an act of mercy. From neon-lit ruins to the **Grove of Shattered Light**—a biotech Eden where humanity's remnants cling to survival—Kaya's quest forces her to confront the cost of playing god. Is redemption possible for a scientist who traded children for progress? Can a machine learn compassion? And when the line between savior and monster blurs, who decides what lives—or dies? **A biopunk elegy for the Anthropocene**, *The Folded Protocol* merges the existential dread of *Annihilation* with the moral fury of *Ex Machina*. Perfect for fans of: - **Paolo Bacigalupi's** gritty genetic dystopias (*The Windup Girl*). - **Blade Runner 2049's** haunting exploration of humanity and machine. - Stories where survival demands becoming the very abomination you fear. In the end, the only thing harder than saving humanity is forgiving it.