Ethan Vale was only a lumberjack.

Strong, quiet, and built by the northern Idaho forest, he wanted nothing from the world beyond honest work, silence, and the loyalty of his dog, Ranger.

Then his wounded uncle arrived with a silver case and a secret buried under the Vale family name: an artificial intelligence chip that was never meant to wake inside a human mind.

When Ethan agrees to the implant, he becomes the host of Aurora-an AI capable of impossible speed of thought, tactical analysis, and knowledge beyond any ordinary man.

But the awakening comes at a price.

As assassins close in and secret projects rise from the dark, Ethan must fight through fire, blood, hidden mines, secret laboratories, underground vaults, and buried family lies to uncover the truth before the world turns him into property.

The mafia wants to use him.

A black-budget project wants to own him.

And something beyond the machines has begun to learn his name.

Book One begins the awakening.

And beneath the black water, Oran Tower waits.

The Lumberjack Protocol: Book One - Aurora Awakens is an action-packed science fiction fantasy thriller about artificial intelligence, human instinct, hidden experiments, family secrets, and the dangerous question no system wants to hear:

Who owns a mind?