The Gilded Algorithm

In the fictional Republic of Veridia, a shadowy syndicate weaponizes a behavioral algorithm named “Morpheus” to orchestrate a transnational antique fraud. Morpheus doesn’t just predict tastes—it identifies latent, shameful desires, pushing victims toward ruinous purchases of flawless forgeries. When a reclusive tech billionaire and an old-money dynasty are both annihilated by the scam, disgraced art crimes analyst Elara Voss discovers the algorithm knows her own buried obsessions better than she does. As feuding heirs turn to murder over worthless heirlooms, Elara must outwit a machine that feeds on the darkness it was designed to exploit.