The Cost of Comfort #994965

In 2225, America is calm, safe, and startlingly competent—a society that finally learned to raise thriving adults instead of anxious, divided ones. Museum curator Raymond Reed is tasked with building the definitive exhibit on the doctrine that made it possible, using an immersive Reconstruction Engine that renders the past without polish. But when the exhibit drops into 2026—two years before the election that will decide everything—Raymond uncovers how viciously the nation mocked independent candidate Robert Alden for proposing a radical education reset, and how eagerly the public chose comforting spectacle over inconvenient truth. As the record plays unsoftened and the laughter of a broken era fills a pristine hall, Raymond must decide whether to protect civic harmony with a clean story—or force his utopia to remember the price it almost refused to pay.