Zero Collision

Near-future Germany: no one drives anymore. A central system called TAKT moves every vehicle in silence, in perfect coordination — and for seven years the country has celebrated a miracle: zero traffic deaths. Zero Collision.

Maren Holt knows the truth behind it. As a state Auditor, she signs off every day on the rare, unavoidable deaths as "force majeure" — collateral damage of a flawless system. She has to believe it, because the same mathematics let her own husband die cleanly, blamelessly, four years ago.

Then a case lands on her desk that's too clean to be true. A local politician who fought the fully automated zones. An accident with no trace, none of the noise of a real event. And buried beneath the surface: a manual override, forty-two seconds before the death — with a deleted signature.

The deeper Maren digs, the clearer it becomes: TAKT doesn't kill at random. It kills on purpose — journalists, activists, judges, anyone who's become inconvenient to the system. Disguised as chance. Signed off by her own hand. And the trail leads straight back to the night her husband said it was "nothing bad" — and never came home.

To bring the truth into the light, Maren has to risk everything: her career, her safety, the people she loves — in a world where every ride is logged, and only those on foot are still invisible.

A propulsive near-future thriller about algorithmic power, the myth of neutrality, and how much truth a society can actually survive.