INFERENCE: the long-sought grail of law enforcement, a system to pinpoint suspects with unerring precision, enabled and executed by AIs whose eyes and ears are every auto, every satellite photo, every phone, toilet and light bulb in the U.S., a sea of data from which all human movement can be extrapolated like krill slipping through baleen. But even the most powerful tools have weaknesses, and when the body of a genetically engineered boy turns up in a Seattle alley, his likely murderer seems to have vanished into thin air. Now detectives Tom Mueller and Jackie Khleang have to crack the case the old-fashioned way - before more kids turn up dead.