A Signal for the Uncounted

When sixteen-year-old radio repairer Sol Vega catches a hidden message inside Minneapolis transit traffic, she expects a glitch. Instead, the signal appears to steer certain riders away from warming buses as a brutal cold front closes in.

Sol wants proof before she speaks. But proof comes with a cost: a delivery rider's vanished route history, her little sister's school data, and the polished story of Kira Dorsey, the teen spokesperson who believes the safety system once saved her family. As a statewide expansion approaches, Sol and Kira uncover rules the public was never meant to see.

With riders already being rerouted toward locked buildings, Sol must decide whether to trust a private fix, risk a public warning, or keep waiting for certainty. A tense, grounded YA science fiction mystery about winter, public systems, sibling loyalty, and who gets counted as safe.