Man has been on an eternal quest for improving its lot.
Super-intelligence, super-athlete, super-hero. The military has its own programs.
The Perfect People Initiative and the Advanced Biogenetics Initiative. Their
goal? To breed the perfect soldier. And they’ve bred a few. Not all of them
happy about it.
Philip Barnes was raised in rural WV. As a child, he watched
as he lost family in a huge mining accident. While his family was pulled from
the disaster alive, an out of her element family medicine rookie failed to save
any of his family. Yes, Philip carries a grudge.
But Philip was more than a coal miner’s son. He was one of
the first PPI/ABI products. Off the charts intelligence. Trained by the
military to be a supreme warrior. Highly skilled in combat, weapons,
explosives, electronics, and logistics. Jason Bourne is a clown by comparison.
Another engineered soldier is Rachael Pratt. Army captain
and a true warrior. She and Barnes had a fling during training, but it didn’t
work out. She is still controlled by the program’s head, a 2-star in the
Pentagon.
Barnes has come to the realization that breeding of a
perfect race of soldiers is misguided and sets out to expose the program and
exact revenge on those who ran the program (sound familiar to a certain Robert Ludlum
series?). The program was setup and run by a bunch of neuroscientists, many of
whom were relatives of big-time military and politicos. And they’ll all have to
pay.
Dr. Kate Morgan (the aforementioned inadequately prepared family med doc) is an FBI forensic pathologist who’s been
called to testify before Congress (something from the previous book, The Singularity Witness). On her Metro ride to Capital Hill, her train
is sabotaged, killing dozens of commuters. Captain Pratt was part of the rescue
effort and pulls Dr. Morgan out.
From here, Morgan, the FBI and a litany of other 3-letter
agencies track clues to who was behind one of the worst domestic attacks ever.
Clues, in the form of tattooed skin taken from the chest of victims, are solutions
to a crossword puzzle leading Morgan and the FBI through underground tunnels
and abandoned fallout shelters. Barnes isn’t making it easy (BTW, there is a nice supporting effort that features Will Shortz, the real-life editor of the NY Times crossword puzzles).
First thought: This is a highly complex plot that takes
Morgan, et al. all over (and under) DC. Barnes is bent on not only exposing the
program but also in exacting considerable pain and revenge on the program’s
leaders. Using a crossword puzzle is an ingenious method that challenges the
reader and the FBI. The level of planning and logistics to pull this whole
thing off is off the charts multi-tiered along with being heavily armed and boobytrapped. And it's well written. Short, concise chapters that jump around without the reader losing track of the complex plot. A 'page turner' is a good descriptor.
Second thought: How in the hell could one person pull this
off? The costs had to be astronomical. Sure, if Barnes could hack into spy satellites, he could probably hack
into Ft. Knox. But still, the scheming must’ve taken years to come
together. If he’d really wanted to bring down this program, just write a
manifesto, send it to the Post, NY Times, Wikileaks, etc. Go down as a hero instead of as the worst domestic terrorist in US history.
But where would the fun be in that?
ECD
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