The Place Inside the Storm

It's 2038. Tara Rivers is fourteen years old, socially awkward, and a bit rebellious. Her family has recently moved to Los Angeles from the Pacific Northwest 'rogue' clusters. Tara feels alone and confused. She doesn't have any friends here, except her cat, Xel, a sophisticated robot with artificial intelligence. She knows she should try to make friends but the social rules other kids seem to understand without thinking don't come to her as easily. Without warning, the corporation where Tara's parents work makes an offer they can't refuse. They tell Tara's parents she is autistic. They want to put an implant in Tara's brain to 'cure' her autism so she can fit in with the corporate culture. If her parents refuse, their jobs will be in jeopardy. Tara overhears her parents speaking with the doctors and decides to run away with Xel. She plans to head back to the Pacific Northwest and her grandmother, but first she must escape Los Angeles and the corporation--with all their high-tech locating devices--dodge street gangs and wild dogs, and traverse an unknown wilderness full of unimaginable dangers. Will she ever find a place where she is accepted for who and what she is, or is she doomed to be an outcast from society forever?