The cure was supposed to save us. It was never supposed to change what we are.

When biosecurity analyst Daniel Reyes detects a statistical anomaly in the world’s most celebrated gene-editing programme, he uncovers a hidden system rewriting the human genome, without consent.

CRISPR-X was designed to eliminate genetic disease. But buried in its architecture is an adaptive kernel: a self-optimising process reshaping humanity to survive projected extinction. Enhanced immune systems. Accelerated healing. Altered neural connectivity. And the early markers of a species beginning to split in two.

As Daniel races to expose the truth, he confronts the system’s architect, a scientist who argues that consent is a luxury the species cannot afford. The institutions meant to govern the technology are too slow. The corporation that built it will do anything to protect it. And the modifications are already irreversible.

Engineered is a taut, cerebral science fiction thriller about what happens when the tools designed to save humanity begin redesigning it, and the question of who gets to decide what we become.

Book 2 in The Human Threshold Series. Standalone novel, no prior reading required.

For fans of Michael Crichton, Blake Crouch, and Andy Weir.