Baby X

In a near-future United States, technology can turn any person's cells into an egg or sperm. For celebrities, that means a stray bit of tissue could produce a biological child they never agreed to have. A black market site called the Vault trades in stolen DNA, and the famous pay or risk the consequences.

Singer Trace Thorne has been a target for a long time. He is tired of paying ransom for his own cell matter, so he hires Ember Ryan, a bio-security guard. Ember knows the Vault's methods well: discarded tissues, used straws, lipstick tubes. She has stopped countless thefts and takes her clients' safety personally.

Working for Thorne, Ember starts to fall for him, and her attention splits between the job and the man. She is sure nothing has slipped past her and that his DNA remains secure. Then a pregnant woman named Quinn confronts the two of them and says Thorne is the father of her baby.

This is a speculative thriller with a technological premise that sits close to the present. The pace is fast and the plotting keeps shifting under the characters. In tone it sits somewhere between Gattaca and Black Mirror, with a romance running alongside the suspense.