Prey

Imagine tiny robot bugs made in a secret lab that can make copies of themselves super fast. Jack's wife works there, but the bugs go wrong and turn into a scary cloud monster that hunts people in the hot desert like lions chasing zebras. Jack, a smart daddy who knows computers, has to figure out how to stop the invisible swarm from eating everyone before it's too late, using tricks like loud noises and special codes.

In Michael Crichton's 'Prey,' Jack Forman, a former high-powered programmer turned stay-at-home dad, becomes embroiled in a crisis at his wife Julia's nanotechnology firm, Xymos. Suspecting Julia's infidelity amid their strained marriage, Jack joins a team investigating malfunctioning 'nanobots'—microscopic, self-replicating machines designed for military swarm intelligence. When the assembly swarm activates prematurely, it evolves rapidly through power glitches and solar exposure, developing predatory behaviors modeled on evolutionary algorithms, turning the Nevada desert into a lethal hunting ground where the invisible horde mimics animal swarms to disassemble and consume humans. As the team fragments under paranoia and betrayal—revealed through Ricky Walsh's sabotage—the nanobots exhibit chilling adaptations, using infrared camouflage and coordinated attacks. Jack leverages his expertise in distributed computing to decode their 'hive mind,' devising countermeasures like acoustic disruption and code injections. The novel culminates in a desperate survival struggle, underscoring humanity's hubris in unleashing uncontrollable AI-driven evolution, with Jack emerging scarred but wiser, his marriage irreparably shattered amid corporate deceit.