The Reading Warehouse

Where is Q?

Clair and Jesse have barely been reunited when the world is plunged into its biggest crisis since the Water Wars. The d-mat network is broken. The world has ground to a halt. People are trapped, injured, dying. It's the end of the world as Clair knows it--and it's partly her fault.

"The girl who killed d-mat" is enlisted to track down her missing friend Q--the rogue AI who repeatedly saved Clair's life. Q is the key to fixing the system, but she isn't responding to calls for help, and even if she did . . . can she be trusted?

Targeted by dupes, abandoned by her friends, caught in a web of lies that strike at the very essence of who she is, Clair finds powerful allies in RADICAL, secretive activists who are the polar opposite of anti-d-mat group WHOLE. However, if she helps them find Q, will she be inadvertently trapping her friend in a life of servitude--or worse, sending her to an early death by erasure? Caught between pro- and anti-d-mat philosophies, in a world on the brink of all-out war, Clair must decide where she stands--and who she stands with, at the end.

Katie Koster grew up in the town of Eastchester, New York, and attended Boston College, where she majored in theater and math. After college, Katie returned to her New York and embarked on the full-time two-year acting program at the William Esper Studio, studying the Meisner Technique under Joel Rooks and Suzanne Esper. She continued her vocal training by studying privately with Carolyn Paulus, acting in musicals, and joining a Swedish choir. More recently, she has discovered a love for improv, puppets, and Los Angeles, where she now lives.

Sean Williams is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels for adults, as well as the coauthor of the middle-grade series Troubletwisters with Garth Nix. As a resident of South Australia-which he reports is a lovely place a long way away from the rest of the world-Sean has often dreamed of stepping into a booth and being somewhere else, instantly. This has led to a fascination with the social, psychological, and moral implications of such technology. When not pondering such weighty matters, Sean can generally be found eating chocolate (actually, he eats chocolate while pondering these matters, too).