THE LATTICE PROTOCOL is a contemporary techno-thriller about power, permission, and the systems that decide who is allowed to act.When a classified research project quietly disappears during a university security incident, the official story points to a lone actor. But the truth moves elsewhere - through private infrastructure, emergency authority, and a hidden compliance network designed to operate above accountability.As investigators, insiders, and outsiders are pulled into a widening containment effort, one question becomes unavoidable: Who decides what is stable - and at what cost?Fast-paced, grounded, and unsettlingly plausible, The Lattice Protocol explores a world where control no longer looks like force, truth can be rewritten in real time, and the most dangerous weapon is permission itself.This novel is written for readers who appreciate intelligence over spectacle and realism over fantasy. Drawing on modern systems of compliance, artificial intelligence, institutional risk management, and information control, The Lattice Protocol delivers the tension of classic espionage fiction updated for the digital age.Nothing here requires belief - only recognition.Book One of the Cora Vance Trilogy