Zero Point, by Nafeez Ahmed
Genre: action-adventure, science-fiction, political-thriller
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Date of Publication: August 14, 2014
Find Zero Point Online:
Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22245323-zero-point?from_search=true)
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mosaddeq-ahmed/1120143213?ean=9781620075395) | Kobo (http://store.kobobooks.com/en-
US/ebook/zero-point-6)
Description:
Near future Great Britain is on the brink of collapse. Mass riots. Economic meltdown. Blackouts.
And a new oil war in Iraq to keep the world economy afloat.
Iraq War veteran and war crimes whistleblower David Ariel is sick of violence, and trying to
make ends meet working for Specialist Protection. But after Prime Minister Carson is brutally
assassinated by extremists on Ariel’s watch, he is covertly targeted by a compromised police
investigation.
When forensics discover that Carson’s assassination inexplicably defied the very laws of
physics, bodies drop like flies as key witnesses are murdered in impossible circumstances.
Fleeing for his life while London is locked-down under martial law, Ariel gets a phone call
from Iraq he will never forget. His estranged girlfriend, journalist Julia Stephenson, warns that
the Carson killing is just the beginning of a wider plot to bring the West to its knees. Then she
disappears.
Ariel’s blood-soaked race against time to track the terror cells behind Carson’s death tumbles
into the cross-fire of a hidden battle between mysterious rogue intelligence agencies. The goal: to
monopolise black budget technologies which could unlock the universe’s darkest, arcane secrets.
As the world he thought he knew unravels, Ariel faces off against bent coppers, double-crossing
agents, psychic killers and super soldiers to complete a black ops mission like no other: stop
Quantum Apocalypse.
--
About Nafeez Ahmed:
Nafeez Ahmed is a bestselling author, investigative journalist, and international security
academic. He writes for The Guardian via his Earth Insight blog, reporting on the geopolitics
of interconnected environmental, energy and economic crises. The author of five critically-
acclaimed non-fiction works addressing humanity’s biggest global challenges, Nafeez’s
forthcoming book is a science fiction thriller, ZERO POINT, due out 18th August 2014.
Nafeez has also written for the Independent on Sunday, The Independent, The Scotsman, Sydney
Morning Herald, The Age, Huffington Post, New Statesman, Prospect Magazine, Le Monde
Diplomatique, among many others. He has been a talking head for BBC News 24, BBC World
News with George Alagiah, BBC Radio Five Live, BBC Radio Four, BBC World Today, BBC
Asian Network, Channel 4, Sky News, C-SPAN Book TV, CNN, FOX News, Bloomberg, PBS
Foreign Exchange, Al-Jazeera English, Press TV, Islam Channel and hundreds of other radio and
TV shows in the USA, UK, and Europe.
Nafeez is also cited and reviewed in the Sunday Times, Times Higher Educational Supplement,
New York Times, The Independent, Independent on Sunday, The Observer, Guardian, Big Issue
Magazine, Vanity Fair, among others
Find Nafeez Ahmed:
Website (http://www.nafeezahmed.com/) | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/
DrNafeezAhmed) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/NafeezAhmed) | Goodreads (https://
www.goodreads.com/author/show/117513.Nafeez_Mosaddeq_Ahmed?from_search=true)
ZERO POINT excerpt 3
Meria Stafford wept. So many people. So many innocent people. She
shook uncontrollably as the tears streamed down her cheeks and dripped
into the sink.
She ran the tap and, cupping some water, splashed it onto her face. Then
she deliberately slowed her breathing.
She gazed at herself in the mirror, through eyes glistening with tears. With
another deep breath, she shut off the tap and dried her face with a paper
towel. She blew her nose with it.
Then the door slammed open, and Helen Golding, Meria’s senior lab
assistant, stepped in looking flustered.
“Dr. Stafford?” she snapped.
“What is it, Helen?” Meria replied sourly. “I told you I just needed five
minutes.” She flicked her paper towel into the waste basket and grabbed
her jacket from the peg by the mirror.
“You’re going to want to see this.”
“See what?”
“The lab analysis of the residue from Carson’s car. Or what was left ofit.”
“What is it?”
“Um, I think you’ll want to see it for yourself.”
“I’m coming. Now can you just spit it out?” She threw on her jacket and
shoved past her assistant into the cold, grey corridor of Counterterrorism
Command’s Forensic Investigations Unit at Scotland Yard. Golding ran
after her, hurrying to keep up.
“Dr. Stafford, it doesn’t make any sense. The residue is―well it’s
definitely not a result of depleted uranium. Or any type of explosive we’re
aware of.”
Meria stopped in her tracks, and turned to face her assistant. “What the
hell are you talking about?”
Golding gulped. “The sample we’d gathered contained primarily steel, as
expected. But the tests show it was superheated to―well, to temperatures
our instruments cannot really measure.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we are looking at temperatures exceeding a million degrees
centigrade. To be honest, we don’t really understand how anything
survived. It looks as if parts of the steel frame of the car―specifically the
area surrounding the passenger seats―seems to have literally evaporated.
But not all of it.”
Meria just stared her assistant blankly. “That’s impossible,” she mustered.
“I know.”
Meria turned back and continued walking. “It must be a mistake. What
you’re talking about would require some kind of nuclear reaction. In
Carson’s car?”
“I know.”
“Impossible. Run the tests again.”
“You’re right, and we have. We ran the tests twice.”
“Well, run them again!” shouted Meria, as they both jogged back to the
lab.
For now Trisha Signing off.
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