Cloud of Lies

"Can Google shield itself and the Internet from cyber-war-by-proxy? I fear not. It will be impossible both to resist the Emperors of the Present—in China, Singapore, Brazil, Europe, or the United States—and to fend off their attack dogs. If, however, Google chooses to ally with the Emperors, those rapacious sovereigns will pull the corporation apart in the struggle to control their piece."
-- From the Forward by R.C.L de Lisle (ed.) to "Cloud of Lies"

Here, for the first time, the deals that gave the U.S. government its 'back-door' to the largest collection ever of the world's secrets. The real secrets: yours and mine.

Nicholas Zorn, the Google exec in charge of security and privacy must make a terrible choice. To protect those he loves from the dogs of cyber-war he must make a deal with their secret government handlers, betraying the values he has promised to uphold.

A brief mention on-line of a rediscovered treasure --- a classic of Chinese literature banned and incinerated by the First Emperor of China --- exposes an inside attack on Google's email servers. The hackers' trail leads to a drug-scam involving the Burmese military and the government of Singapore, which threatens to crush Google in its courts.

Both governments and cyber-criminals are angling to hack into Google's secure cloud. For different reasons, or the same reason? Puzzling over the attacks, Nicholas Zorn discovers, to his horror, that the hackers have found a way to compromise him, too.

Unable to reconcile his loyalties, he makes a mistake that leads those he loves even deeper into danger and risks giving the criminals everything they want, and more...

* * *

Do you prefer thrillers that make sense? Where the threats are real? No vampires, aliens or climate catastrophes? A story where details are plausible not an embarrassing pastiche of technobabble and magic. Do you prefer heroes and heroines to super-heroes and X-Men (or Women)? Do you want a thriller that ties up all the 'loose ends' without 'miraculous' outcomes?

Then "Cloud of Lies" is for you. A novel about deceit, responsibility and the illusions of security for all whose secrets lie hidden somewhere in the Cloud.

"Will such a corporation—even one with a whimsical motto eschewing evil—be the rival of Emperors for the control of the present (the past, the future)? Or must it be their servant?" -- From the Forward by R.C.L de Lisle (ed.) to "Cloud of Lies"