In the near future, America loses control of a war-ending bioweapon forcing a U.S. Army investigator and a medical researcher onto a morally ambiguous collision course that could cost the lives of millions.

SYNOPSIS:

THIS IS A BOOK, RIGHTS AVAILABLE - PUBLISHED BY DROPSHIPPUBLISHING APRIL 2021. FROM THE AUTHORS OF THE AWARD-WINNING NOVEL IT TAKES DEATH TO REACH A STAR, CURRENTLY IN DEV FOR TV.

The world is on the brink of all-out war. The extremist terrorist threat has escalated. Life is akin to that in World War II: citizens in major cities in the Western world are now under curfew; bombings and attacks are frequent; in the USA, the President has declared a state of emergency and marshal law is now in force.

Marie Weyland, a war correspondent on the front lines covering the escalating conflict with extremist Islam, infiltrates a small civilian village in Syria in which a small terrorist cell has made a temporary camp. But she is not there for the terrorists. She is there to find out why the US government is to fire-bomb the settlement—killing innocent men, women and children. It can’t be just for this inconsequential extremist cell. After sneaking into the camp, she finds a metallic a locked briefcase the terrorists appear to have stolen. While taking pictures and fiddling with the case, Marie is accidentally exposed to the contents. She panics and leaves quickly just as the village is annihilated by an airstrike. Marie returns home to the USA and falls deathly ill. When it’s discovered that she’s become infected with a virulent bacterium, Marie is quarantined by the CDC.

Two parallel stories unfold …

Evan Weyland, Marie’s husband, is a brilliant biomedical researcher tasked with developing new technologies to fight cancer. He also sees the world through the lens of someone on the Autism spectrum. Employed by John Hopkins University and the DOD, his work focusses on nanobot technology. The nanobot tech is a biological, microscopic, army designed to fight any hostile invader (such as cancer) within the human body. The army can be controlled by a human using a neural link via headgear. But so far, only Evan can make it work—possibly due to the way his special mind works.

Evan is notified of Marie’s quarantine and rushes to her side. Despite all the doctors’ efforts, she will die. Marie is Evan’s world, the focal point of his existence—he builds he’s daily schedule and entire life around her. He can’t just watch her die. Rifling through her research notes on a covert military project, Evan believes Marie has been exposed to a weaponized bacterium. Knowing there may be no available antibiotic for his wife, Evan takes matters into his own hands.

Evan tries to steal his own nanotech project from the University, but in the process, his boss catches him. A struggle ensues and Evan’s boss is accidentally killed, causing Evan to panic and flee without his nanobots.

Scared and on the run, Evan battles his difficulties with social interactions, immense external pressure and overstimulation, so he can travel to Boston and visit Sharmila Vashi, CEO of Neurodelve—one of the companies that did not win the contract to develop the nano tech because their version was considered unethical. The technology requires a surgical procedure and a neural link so strong that if the nanobot army is destroyed, the human pilot does too.

Sharmila is close to a sale of this tech on the black market and wants to use this opportunity as a field test, so agrees to Evans request in exchange for all of the data. Evan undergoes surgery while a Neurodelve mole inside the CDC is given syringe with an army of Neurodelve nanobots inside. The mole injects Marie but is captured by Homeland Security who has taken control of the scene.

Evan is transported to a mobile unit—a reconfigured semi-articulated truck—with a specialized microcosmic room inside known The Sphere. Inside The Sphere, Evan uses the neural link, 360-degree screens and an advanced haptic suit to receive a full VR immersion experience: he will literally see inside Marie’s body and control an army of nanobots.

Evan is then given a grave warning: he is advised that the pilot program is directly connected to his brain and nervous system via the suit and rig. Each nanobot that becomes incapacitated, crippled or destroyed, will affect him physically. If all nanobots are destroyed there is a high probability that his body and brain will not recover. Armed with his advanced knowledge of the nanotech, Evan dives in—navigating his wife’s circulatory system to the brain where the weaponized bacteria have accumulated.

Billy Vick is a man haunted by war. As unit leader in the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, Vick is a bulldog, the man they attach to investigations that absolutely must be resolved. Hiding PTSD from his wife and co-workers, Vick allows his work to consume him. His superiors look the other way, because Vick always delivers. His wife, Rosie, and his three boys keep in grounded.

Vick is informed of a black-ops project in Syria and a US reporter who is now deathly ill in the CDC facility at Dulles airport. Vick studies the evidence and fears the worst: an unethical bioweapon project called Omega, that he himself shut down the year before, may have come to fruition anyway. Vick brings this to his superior, Major Barclay, but is told to back off the case. Vick smells a cover up and keeps snooping.

During his investigation, Vick learns of Evan and his attempt to steal the nanobot tech. But Evan has disappeared, and Vick fears he may do something drastic so he goes to Evan and Marie’s place to find any evidence of Omega or where Evan may be, but the house has already been ransacked. Vick is attacked by a team of black ops assassins sent to cover everything up. Vick experiences flashbacks to his tour of duty in the middle east where he lost his best friend Pete. The mental lock up almost gets him killed. Vick comes face to face with the unit’s leader, a cold-eyed man by the name of Ryder who tells Vick to forget everything and leave it alone. Vick is spared by Ryder’s strange sense of honor for a fellow soldier.

Vick, with no intention of leaving it alone, digs deeper, discovering Evan’s true intentions with Neurodelve and meets a stoic woman—a Homeland Agent—named Reinhardt. Before Vick can act, he is arrested by Major Barclay a man whose strings are being pulled by dark forces behind the scenes. Reinhardt’s team intervenes and takes custody of Vick by force, which starts a feud with Barclay. Ryder watches from the periphery.

Reinhardt says that her team already has control of the CDC facility where Marie is being held, but that a Mole has injected her with something—possibly Neurodelve’s tech. Vick explains that Evan cannot be allowed to interact with the Omega bacteria because the weapon is designed to protect itself and could mutate into something far worse. Reinhardt demands to know the full story. Vick explains that Project Omega is designed to target people of Arabic decent. The rationale was, since no central base of operations for Islamic terrorists can be identified, the US and Russian governments collaborated to accept any collateral damage and kill all people who have more than 25% Arabic DNA. Marie Weyland has just enough for Omega to affect her. The US government got cold feet, mainly because Vick pressured for it to be shut down, and pulled out of the project. However, the prototype was apparently stolen from the Russians by terrorists in Syria. The US government decided to take the opportunity to napalm the village camp where they knew it was.

The easy path would be to kill Marie, but since she is the sole witness to the war crime and Vick refuses to allow any more innocents to die, he decides the only way to stop Evan is to also go into Marie’s body to hunt him down. Reinhardt convinces the Evan’s former team at John Hopkins to rig a similar VR unit for Vick to use. However, since only Evan could control the original tech, the team have to directly wire Vick up to the control unit. He too will die if his nanobot army is destroyed. Struggling with his own post-traumatic stress, Vick dives into Marie’s body with his own nano army to make contact with Evan and convince him to stop.

Evan and Billy

As the two stories move toward inevitable collision, Ryder tortures, murders, and extorts his way into a position to be able to complete what the airstrike failed to do: erase any trace of Omega and any witnesses.

Inside Marie’s body, Evan is just on the verge of reaching Marie’s brain when Vick appears with his army. Vick identifies himself and tries to reason. Evan refuses, only thinking about his love for Marie.

The battle ignites inside Marie’s body, both parties struggling with their own mental issues, until Evan finds a way to get the upper hand and weaponizes Marie’s immune system against Vick. Vick is yanked from the VR simulation, but it’s too late and he’s suffers a stroke. Evan attempts to rid Marie of the bacteria, but it mutates instantly and fights back, forcing Evan to disconnect and leave Marie’s body.

Evan Weyland

Evan disengages from Neurodelve’s VR rig and flees the sphere to go back to his wife—desperate to see her one last time before the Omega variant destroys her. Sharmila flee s too but is killed by unknown attackers.

Meanwhile, the Army arrives at the CDC with Ryder’s team in tow, demanding access to Billy Vick. Reinhardt goes out to meet them. In the midst of negotiations, a shot is fired, and all hell breaks loose between the Army and members of Homeland’s elite unit. Reinhardt confronts Ryder but struggles to survive amidst the fray.

But something else is at play, too. High-tech Russian Spetznaz soldiers arrive to join the battle. They have orders to steal back their missing weapon. They are likely the men who killed Sharmila.

Evan battles his instinct to escape the massive overstimulation of war raging at the government facility and makes his way to his wife. On the way, he finds a terribly wounded Vick. The realization of what he did to this man hits home. Vick awakes and the two have an uneasy conversation, but in the end come to understand the other’s motivation.

Reinhardt enters the facility and locates Billy and Evan. Following behind her is the determined Ryder, who now has new orders to retrieve a sample of the mutated weapon and scrub everything else. At the same time, the Spetznaz infiltrate the facility in search of Marie and the bioweapon she hosts.

Billy, Evan and Reinhardt resolve to finish the mission together. Reinhardt gives Evan her key card allowing him access to Marie. Vick gives Evan his wallet and tells him that should he die to find his wife and kids and take them somewhere safe—they both know what will happen if Omega gets out. Evan takes off and homes in on his wife’s position. He now knows the only way to defeat Omega is to kill his wife and burn the body, though his heart refuses to accept it.

Billy Vick

Vick and Reinhardt’s encounter Ryder. A vicious firefight ensues. Vick and Reinhard kill Ryder and barely survive. But victory is short lived. They are forced to barricade the corridor leading to Marie’s room and in the end sacrifice themselves with an explosive to keep the Russian Spetznaz at bay.

Evan Weyland

Evan gets to his wife’s side, says his goodbyes and prepares to incinerate her when he has a catastrophic anxiety attack. He has to talk to her one last time. He revives her and they share a final moment as the remaining Spetznaz barrel into the room. He’s out of time.

They hold Evan at gunpoint. In a move that shocks everyone, Marie lurches forward, grabbing for the Russian soldier’s weapon. In the struggle the Russian soldier shoots Marie in the head, splattering his comrade’s face in her blood. The soldier is shocked, the men argue and turn on one another. Evan, enraged, attacks the final man and in a moment of chance overcomes him. He reluctantly burns Marie’s body and escapes, evading a second team of Spetznaz come to retrieve their men.

Epilogue

The Omega variant is now out. The Russian soldier covered in Marie’s blood spread it to his crew and their plane went down over France. A pandemic is unfolding. Evan has fled to Siberia where there are few people and bacteria may struggle to survive. “Maybe in time,” he thinks as he escorts Billy’s family into the truck that will take them to their new home, “we can find a way to start again.”