Techno Thriller
Date Published: 02-10-2023
Publisher: Open Books
Three people doing their jobs and making decisions that may lead to a conflict between the world’s powers. After all, the US must respond to an attack on its flagship project to build home-grown ‘fabs’, especially as it is linked to the reputation of the President. And People’s Republic cannot possibly ignore unprovoked aggression on its sovereignty…
Jane Sullivan’s appointment as the National Security Adviser is the pinnacle of her career. She knows that access to ‘silicon chips’ is a strategic imperative of vital interests to the nation and decides to do whatever she can to ensure a fully domestic Semiconductor Supply Chain…
Argon Zhi has built a good career with the local semiconductor industry. He has become a successful man and is a member of an elite club of professionals who work behind the scenes to make their island one of the Asia’s ‘Tiger Economies’. When a friend asks, he agrees to craft a plan for ensuring the continued competitiveness of the island’s technology companies. It is the ‘right thing to do’…
Cedric Dyson is a tinkerer and does not care about politics. Instead, he loses himself in his job as a Failure Analyses (FA) engineer who figures out why some chips do not work the way they are supposed to. Then he notices a pattern. Like a crime detective on a murder case, he follows the clues, trusts his intuition, and uncovers a shocking truth…
Everything comes to a head with a murder of a foreign citizen on US soil…
EXCERPT
‘There is a Tide in the Affairs of Men’
William Shakespeare
t-0 + 20 months, Chandler, AZ
Jane knew that this time around she would need to be nothing more than a wallflower. But she did not mind. In fact, she knew that her participation on this junket was something of a reward. In the political language of the capital, the proximity to the president that this trip offered was recognition for the part she’d played in the project. Besides, flying with POTUS on Air Force 1 was always fun. Even Iron Brew was impressed. And since all the attention would be focused on him, she would get to do what she preferred―observe rather than be observed.
Yes, this trip was to be a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the first of her advanced semiconductor factories. POTUS would meet the CEO of Intel, they would shake hands, pose for pictures, probably with one of those silly giant scissors, and then pretend to tour the facility.
Jane was however surprised by the many thousands of man-hours that went into orchestrating the event. The team that represented the hosting company―Matt Nowak, the site manager, and his tech geeks―were highly concerned about the prospect of a tour of the facility. Apparently, this would contaminate the line and once corrupted it would take them weeks to bring it back up to the needed standard. They kept going on about Class-1, whatever that meant, and insisted that the only possible way of supporting a tour was if the party was limited to no more than eight people, and if everyone wore the full ‘bunny suits’ and followed standard procedures. Some amongst the nerd squad thought that even that would be unacceptable.
On the other hand, the Secret Service people went into conniptions at the idea of POTUS wearing a bunny suit. Apparently having POTUS in a disguise that would make him indistinguishable from the rest of the party was unthinkable. It seemed that having him out of sight of the full support team―aides, snipers, eyes and ears, the guy carrying ‘the football’, medics, and all the rest of the normal retinue―was totally against procedures. Not to mention that the level of protection provided by only a couple of agents who would not be allowed to bring in their weapons was entirely unacceptable.
And the White House political spin doctors were concerned about someone snapping inappropriate pictures of the President struggling to get in and out of one of those bunny suits―an awkward procedure that would apparently call for levels of agility that may be beyond the septuagenarian POTUS.
….
About the Author
Riko Radojcic was born in poor post-war Yugoslavia but enjoyed a very happy and secure early childhood there. When he was twelve his father took a job with the UN World Health Organization and Riko spent his teen years in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania, observing the demise of the colonial Raj as well as some harsh Third World realities. He completed high school in Swiss private schools -- a polar opposite of the Third World -- which gave him a peek into the lives of the one-percenters. He then moved to Manchester, UK, where he witnessed the bleak circumstances of the working class in the heart of industrial England.
After working in the UK for several years, Riko immigrated to the US, settling in San Diego. There he enjoyed a rewarding and a very stimulating career in the semiconductor industry, working in a variety of technical, managerial and business development roles. His professional life exposed him not only to the amazing wonders of silicon chip technology, but also gave him an opportunity to travel internationally and to interact with smart and talented people from very diverse backgrounds. After 35 plus years in the world of high tech and engineering management, Riko is now devoting his full energies to writing as he tries to bring to life the magic of technology, the realities of the high-tech industry, and some of his diverse life experiences through storytelling.
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