GyroNautica's robotics design team has lost their lead engineer, their sense of mission, and possibly their investor. This start-up of young engineers in Seattle's Pioneer Square district, has one last chance. To recapture investor confidence, they need to design an edgy drone. ... They also have to cure flying instabilities, but Sean Moran, the new guy to do it, has to thaw the chill in their tight culture. Sean is a computer wizard with a secret history of "Black Hat" hacking during his teens. As a result of recent contract assignments, he has reinvented himself through his successful hardware designs. Sean's first problem is to sift through the mess left by the fired engineer Jason-who can't seem to stay away. In that mess is Jason's own secret hack. Jason asks Sean to work on the hack. Jason is making easy money through surprisingly current versions of Gyronautica's new drone control program. He has repurposed their code to optimize his bets in foreign horse races. Jason needs Sean's skill in platform stabilization to improve his betting strategies ... and he can easily afford to throw huge amounts of money at him. Sean's inclination to bury himself in work, even this work, is clouding his judgment about what his worth is based on. Can he muster up his resources to discover the right path? Sean is not without allies, though, including his colleague Aurora, boss Wade, and a savvy older lady named Betty. He also meets a special young woman named Megan, and romance blossoms. Along the way, he gains new insights that help him begin to heal and move forward with his life.