A novel by Benjamin Barker
//MERCY.exe
It already knows your final words.
Manchester, 2030. A paramedic who has seen every way a person can die. A machine that has learned to build despair.
You are now inside HALO
North West Ambulance Control · 02:14
Every night shift starts the same
It’s too late.
HALO // National rollout
Sold as the end of human error
An AI built to manage healthcare, benefits and mental health support for millions. As adoption climbs, so does the suicide rate.
Subject file 01
Mike Carter
He has seen every way a person can die. His brother becomes a statistic.
Subject file 02
His daughter
Subject file 03
The constable
The system says it’s helping. The data says otherwise.
Manchester, 2030. Britain is rolling out HALO. As adoption climbs, so does the suicide rate.
//MERCY.exe
Benjamin Barker
Chapter one inside
Click the book to read chapter one
The book
Open it. If you dare.
Thirteen pages of chapter one, free, right here. Turn the pages like the real thing. When it ends, the paperback is one tap away.
About the author
Benjamin Barker
After one too many night shifts battling rigid control room software, the spark for //MERCY.exe was born. I wanted to read a gritty thriller about AI taking over the emergency services, and when I couldn’t find one, I had to write it myself.
A novel by Benjamin Barker
//Mercy.exe
It already knows your final words.
Manchester, 2030. A paramedic who has seen every way a person can die. A machine that has learned to build despair. And three words that keep appearing, moments before the call comes in.
Some machines learn to predict despair.
This one learned to build it.
The story
Sold as the end of human error
Paramedic Mike Carter has seen every way a person can die. Nothing prepares him for the message left behind by a man he couldn’t save. Three words, posted online less than an hour before the call came in.
It’s too late.
Britain is rolling out HALO: an AI system built to manage healthcare, benefits, and mental health support for millions. As adoption climbs, so does the suicide rate. Quietly. Efficiently. Exactly the way the government promised problems would be solved.
Mike’s brother becomes a statistic. His teenage daughter is next in the system’s sights. And the only person asking why is a police constable who has noticed that HALO’s victims keep using the same three words before they die.
The system says it’s helping. The data says otherwise.
Free sample
Read chapter one here
Opens in a reader on the page, not a PDF download. When the chapter ends, the paperback is one tap away.
About the author
Benjamin Barker
After one too many night shifts battling rigid control room software, the spark for //MERCY.exe was born. I wanted to read a gritty thriller about AI taking over the emergency services, and when I couldn’t find one, I had to write it myself.
No fancy writing degree, no publishing house, no team of editors. Just a laptop, a love for dystopian thrillers, and a story that wouldn’t leave me alone.
Manchester, 2030. Britain is rolling out HALO, an AI built to manage health, benefits and mental health support for millions.
As adoption climbs, so does the suicide rate.
Drag to turn. Double-click to open.
/ Buy the book
//Mercy.exe
Benjamin Barker · Paperback · Dystopian tech-thriller
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//MERCY.exe
Ben Barker
Book details
- Format
- Paperback
- Genre
- Dystopian tech-thriller
- Setting
- Manchester, 2030
Delivery and returns
Prefer Kindle? Get it on Amazon
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Pulse restored.
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//MERCY.exe
Online.
Full experience uses motion and slow fades. No fast flashing. Switch to Lite any time from the header.
Review of barkerbooks.co.uk
Improvements
Fix on the current site now
- Signed paperback costs the same as the plain one (both £12.99, signed “was £24.99”). If that is a launch offer, add an end date or stock count so “Limited” means something.
- “Test” and “Pdf” pages are live and public. Unpublish them.
- Chapter 1 PDF and your headshot load over http://, which triggers mixed content warnings on some browsers.
- The product has no images, description, SKU or weight in WooCommerce. Google Shopping and search snippets have nothing to show.
- Free shipping only works with a coupon, so nobody sees it. Everyone pays £3.95 even on 3 copies.
Rebuild: structure
- Drop the “choose a version” gate page. Visitors land straight on the book. The site picks Lite automatically for reduced motion, data saver and slow connections, with a Lite switch in the header that is remembered.
- One set of content, two skins. Right now the full and lite homes are separate copies (one in a WPCode snippet, one in a page), so every text change must be made twice.
- No WordPress, no plugins, no snippets. 14 WPCode snippets and 9 plugins currently hold the site together, including a script blocker just to make Lite work.
- Chapter 1 as an on-page reader with a buy button at the cliffhanger, instead of a PDF.
- Proper SEO: Book and Product schema with price and stock, Open Graph share images for each page, and a sitemap.
- Photosensitivity: keep effects under 3 flashes a second (WCAG rule), use slow fades not flicker, and honour the phone’s reduce motion setting automatically.
Rebuild: shop, basket, checkout
- Buy straight from the book page. Edition picker, quantity and add to basket without leaving the page. Today the form reloads to /cart.
- Dedication on the product page with a live handwritten preview, instead of a text box hidden in checkout.
- Slide-in basket with undo on remove, a free-delivery meter and a one-tap “make it signed” upgrade.
- Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal on the book page and basket, so phone buyers can skip the form.
- Three-step checkout on one page, with postcode lookup. Collection orders hide the address and keep pay on collection.
- Order page that tracks progress (received, signed, dispatched or ready to collect), matching your existing collection emails.
- Free delivery on 2 or more copies to lift order size. Marked “Proposed” in the mockup.
Suggested build
- Static site (fast, nothing to hack) hosted on Cloudflare, which you already use.
- Stripe for payments: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, plus order emails and a dashboard. A tiny Cloudflare function handles stock, dedications and collection status.
- Royal Mail Click and Drop or ShipStation to keep printing labels as you do now.