Part of NUMA Files, book 19
First published 2022
Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are tracking treasure once owned by pirate queen Ching Shih when they receive new orders. A freighter has vanished in the Western Pacific. The ship carried computers with extraordinary capabilities, technology that could reshape global power. Austin and Zavala discover the vessel's disappearance masks a larger deception. Two rival hacker groups wage cyber-war for control of the world's data flow. Both Russian and Chinese forces want the missing computers. Austin and Zavala find themselves caught between these digital armies with only a band of modern pirates as allies. These outcasts follow their own brutal code, but they may be Austin's only hope. One of his colleagues has been taken hostage. Austin must free his teammate while preventing the stolen computers from falling into the wrong hands. The fate of global digital security hangs in the balance.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, mystery, crime, thriller, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-allies, found-family, high-stakes
Setting: Pacific Ocean, Western Pacific
Period: 21st Century
400 pages · Kindle Edition · G.P. Putnam's Sons