by Graham Brown
Part of NUMA Files, book 20
First published 2023
Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are diving for treasure once owned by pirate queen Ching Shih when they receive new orders. A cargo ship has vanished in the Western Pacific. The vessel carried advanced computers with unprecedented processing power. Austin and Zavala discover the ship's destruction was no accident. They have stumbled into a digital battlefield where competing hacker networks fight for global data control. Russian and Chinese forces want the stolen technology. The hackers will kill to protect their cyber empire. Austin and Zavala find themselves with unlikely allies among modern pirates who follow their own brutal code. One of their team members has been taken prisoner. The stolen computers could reshape how information flows across the planet. Austin must navigate between warring factions while the digital world hangs in the balance.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-allies, found-family
Setting: Western Pacific, Russia, China
Period: Contemporary
416 pages · Kindle Edition · G.P. Putnam's Sons