"As 2037 Canada is ravaged by illness, one woman and her AI companion enter a dangerous bubble of the superrich. Montreal, 2035: a fledging synthetic consciousness "wakes up" in a lab. Jenny, the lead developer, determined to nurture this synthetic being like a child, trains it for work with people at the border of the Canadian Protectorate. She names it Julian. Toronto, 2037: Canada has been annexed by a tightly conservative United States. Slaton,...