University Mike Markel

Swerve University Mike Markel

The Central Montana State community has waited a year to learn whether Syclone Systems, a maker of self-driving car technology, will enter into a long-term R& D partnership with the university. At a live demo on campus, where the company is expected to announce its decision, its man on campus, Bryan Orville, is run down by one of his experimental cars. Whoever altered the car's computer code to kill him also erased all the forensic evidence. Because Orville had some nasty habits-fooling around with grad students, stealing promising research ideas, and publicly humiliating professors who didn't meet his standards-Seagate and Miner are swamped with suspects. When a second body turns up, and then someone hacks Syclone and threatens to put them out of business, the detectives devise a plan to lure the killer out of hiding with a phony reward for solving the hack. But the killer knows there is much more money to be made selling the company's trade secrets on the dark web. Besides, the killer is quite busy planning one last murder.