Burton asks Flynne to take over his side job providing security in what appears to be a video game.

Flynne watches through a building window as a woman is grotesquely killed by an unknown man during her security shift.

Burton is taken into custody by Homeland Security after a confrontation with the religious cult Luke 4:5.

Coldiron contacts Burton, warns him of an assassination contract on his life, and requests a meeting with Flynne.

Detective Lowbeer visits Lev's group and concludes that Flynne witnessed a real murder and is needed as an eyewitness.

Macon and Edward build a telepresent interface device that will allow Flynne to transfer her consciousness into the future.

Flynne puts on the interface device, counts down from fifteen, and opens her eyes inside a peripheral in future London.

Ash informs Flynne that she witnessed the real murder of Aelita West and is needed to identify the killer.

Flynne meets detective Lowbeer in future London and agrees to help identify Aelita's killer.

Coldiron USA is formally established as a shell corporation with Burton as CEO and Flynne as communications officer.

Reese, one of Burton's trusted security men, abducts Flynne and hands her over to drug kingpin Corbell Pickett.

Burton uses invisible squidsuits to infiltrate Pickett's compound and rescue Flynne.

At Daedra's party, Flynne immediately recognizes Aelita's killer but is then captured along with Netherton.

Flynne deploys swarm weapons inside Newgate prison, killing al-Habib entirely.

In the aftermath, Flynne is pregnant and partnered with Tommy while Connor receives improved prosthetics for daily life.

The Peripheral begins when Burton Fisher recruits his sister Flynne to fill in for him on a mysterious security job that she initially believes is a video game. During a shift, Flynne witnesses a woman being murdered and begins to suspect the experience is real, setting off a chain of events that draws her into a genuine criminal investigation. Contacts from a future corporation called Coldiron reach Burton, warn him of an assassination contract, and ask to meet with Flynne, eventually arranging for her to travel to the distant future by occupying a human-like body known as a peripheral. In future London, Flynne meets the detective Ainsley Lowbeer, who confirms Flynne witnessed the murder of Aelita West and needs her to identify the killer. As Flynne and her brother accumulate enormous wealth from their future employers, they establish a shell corporation, fend off local threats including the drug kingpin Corbell Pickett, and prepare for a climactic confrontation at a party where the killer is expected to appear. The novel closes with the villain defeated, Flynne pregnant and partnered with Tommy, and a future suggesting continued contact between the two timelines.

The core events that transform Flynne from gamer to time-crossing eyewitness and hero.

Netherton wakes hungover to Rainey's sigil and is confronted about his sexual relationship with their client Daedra West.

Daedra West travels to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to establish diplomatic relations with its deformed inhabitants.

The boss patcher attacks Daedra at the Garbage Patch; her security kills him; Rainey suspects Daedra engineered the whole attack.

Aelita West is declared missing, and her residence is identified as the building Flynne had been watching during her shifts.

Lev bribes Burton's cousin Leon with winning lottery numbers to secure an arrangement for Coldiron to meet with Flynne.

Four young men are found dead on a road near Flynne's home, presumed to be the football players from Jimmy's bar.

Connor occupies the Pavel peripheral for the first time and joyfully sprints and flips, overwhelmed by having full use of his limbs.

Netherton and Lowbeer inhabit bear-like peripherals to conduct covert reconnaissance at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Lowbeer reveals to Netherton that al-Habib staged his own death at the Garbage Patch and likely escaped.

Burton loads a dummy wearing a presidential mask into a squidsuit and dispatches it to Pickett's compound, triggering a massive explosion.

Netherton inhabits a Wheelie Boy peripheral and visits Flynne's present world outside her home for the first time.

Flynne's group is ambushed by invisible attackers in squidsuits, and Burton is wounded when armor shrapnel nicks his femoral artery.

Flynne's peripheral receives a cognitive bundle implant so she can convincingly pose as a neoprimitivist curator at Daedra's party.

Connor leaps from above during the confrontation at Daedra's party, partially striking the balcony man before crashing to the floor.

Netherton, now living with Rainey in Soho, tells Macon he finds regular visits to Flynne's world deeply relaxing.

While Flynne is drawn into the central mystery, a parallel story unfolds in the distant future around publicist Wilf Netherton and the shadowy incident surrounding his client Daedra West's diplomatic visit to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where a patcher boss is killed under suspicious circumstances. The investigation broadens as Aelita West is declared missing, linking the future plotline directly to the building Flynne was watching, and both timelines accelerate with escalating danger including assassination attempts and bodies turning up near Flynne's home. The stakes deepen as Connor and others gain the ability to occupy peripherals in the future, dramatically changing the personal experiences of those involved and blurring the line between real and artificial existence. Lowbeer and Netherton conduct covert reconnaissance at the Garbage Patch that reveals al-Habib did not truly die, and back in the present Burton orchestrates the destruction of Pickett's compound to neutralize the local threat. As both timelines converge on Daedra's party, Netherton begins visiting Flynne's world through a Wheelie Boy peripheral, and the novel closes with him looking forward to returning to the world he has come to treasure.

The supporting events that build the world, raise the stakes, and enrich the thriller.

Netherton casually mentions the jackpot for the first time while discussing Lev's continua program, offering no further details.

A darknet advertisement offering eight million dollars for an assassination is revealed to be targeting Burton Fisher specifically.

Flynne gives Netherton a full account of the murder, adding that the man at the window seemed to anticipate the killing.

Rainey uses a peripheral to privately warn Netherton that he is being framed and suspected of murdering Aelita West.

Lowbeer reveals that a peripheral was rented and implanted with explosives specifically to assassinate Netherton at Maenad's Crush.

Flynne returns from her first peripheral visit and insists to Janice that what she experienced was absolutely not a game.

Burton secretly enters Flynne's peripheral during the night, violently attacks Ossian, and injures him before returning to his own time.

Netherton explains the full story of the jackpot to Flynne while piloting the Wheelie Boy beneath an oak tree outside her home.

Ash secretly communicates to Netherton in coded birdsong that Lowbeer once collaborated with the sadistic arms dealer Vespasian.

Flynne demands Lowbeer abandon plans to use the chemical agent party time on Luke 4:5 or she will quit the mission.

Lowbeer reveals to Flynne that the true purpose of the entire mission is to prevent the assassination of President Gonzales.

Lowbeer admits she already knows Aelita's killer but cannot present that knowledge as admissible legal evidence in court.

Flynne confronts Lowbeer after piecing together that Griff is an earlier version of Lowbeer from the same original timeline.

The bearded man holding Flynne and Netherton captive at Newgate is revealed to be Hamed al-Habib, who had faked his death.

Lowbeer reveals that Daedra's father was a coconspirator in the plot to assassinate President Gonzales.

Beneath the thriller's surface, The Peripheral is driven by a series of revelations that reframe every event preceding them, beginning with Netherton's first cryptic mention of the jackpot and the discovery that an eight-million-dollar darknet contract has been placed on Burton Fisher's life. As Flynne and Netherton grow closer across timelines, critical truths emerge: Netherton is nearly killed by a peripheral rigged with explosives, and Flynne begins pushing back on the people controlling her, refusing to be used as a passive instrument. The nature of the future itself is laid bare when Netherton finally explains the jackpot in full, describing how gradual climate catastrophe killed eighty percent of humanity, a revelation that gives weight to everything Flynne has seen in future London. Trust fractures further when Ash secretly warns Netherton that Lowbeer cannot be fully trusted, and Flynne issues an ultimatum over the planned use of a chemical weapon, proving she operates by her own moral code. The final revelations cascade at the novel's climax: the true purpose of the mission is to prevent a presidential assassination that triggered the jackpot, al-Habib is unmasked as Aelita's killer, and a final bombshell ties Daedra's own family to the conspiracy.