“The most fun I’ve had reading a thriller in a while.”
Kashif Hussain, Best Thriller Books

It’s hard to believe that it’s been twenty years since my first encounter with Salam al-Fayed. When I created the character, I intended to write only one book about him. In fact, that was the whole point—that Fade was wholly and irretrievably doomed.

When I typed the last page, I believed he was dead. And for years he was. But neither I, nor many of my readers, could completely shake him. I began to wonder if maybe he’d survived and was lying dormant, waiting for the right moment to be resurrected. I started jotting notes about him on Post-its and when the drawer I stored them in overflowed, I knew it was time.

In a world that’s become chaotic and unstable, Fade seemed like the right hero. He’s smart and deadly, but with a cynical world view and a tendency to get in over his head. A man who can be dragged by the same unpredictable currents as the rest of us.

It’s easy to be nostalgic for a simpler time—an era when right, wrong, good, and evil were clear cut and had widely accepted definitions. Those days are gone and I’m starting to wonder if they’ll ever return. Runaway technology, partisan politics, a rising hyper-wealthy class, and geopolitical turmoil are rearranging our lives on a fundamental level and at breakneck speeds. As Fade so eloquently puts it, the world is like a clown car blundering into Camp Crystal Lake. And if that’s the case, is there still time to turn it around?

When I was a kid, I devoured mountains of books about the skirmishes between East and West. Later, the Soviet Union fell and the danger it posed was replaced by that of Islamic extremism. Now the threats are more complex. More insidious. It’s a strange new world in need of a strange new character.

It’s been a lot of fun reconnecting with Fade and using him to try to make sense of the storm swirling around us. More and more, I feel like we’re headed for a ditch. And while Fade might not be the savior we want; he might be the one we need.

 

Plot

Ex-navy SEAL Salam al-Fayed–Fade to his friends–has already been declared clinically dead twice in his career, and when he allows a police sniper to shoot him, he’s hoping the third time will be the charm. Being slowly paralyzed by a bullet fragment in his spine and wanted by the authorities for wiping out a SWAT team he believed was a CIA hit squad, what other path is there?

When he wakes up from a lengthy coma, he’s confused and angry. Where did they teach these cops to shoot? Barely able to talk or move, he’s gone from being one of the most lethal operators in navy history to completely defenseless. He’d be put on trial, convicted, and condemned to spend the rest of his life lying in a prison infirmary.

So, when a shadowy private organization offers him a new identity and state-of-the-art medical care, he has no choice but to agree. Nothing’s free, though. After a grueling rehabilitation, he’s drafted into an elite paramilitary unit. But who’s in charge? And what’s the mission?

The first of those questions is quickly answered: A group of extraordinarily wealthy and powerful people have decided that the world’s governments are no longer capable of controlling the rising chaos around the globe. This power vacuum poses a mortal danger to all humanity and it’s one they intend to fill.

Their plan had been to move slowly but when a dire threat explodes out of China, there’s no more time for caution. Panic is spreading, exacerbated by politicians who are lashing out blindly and focused entirely on saving themselves.

Fade suddenly finds himself at the sharp end of a mission to stop a menace unlike any faced before. If he fails, the consequences will be unimaginable. But what if he succeeds?

No one elected the people he’s working for. And God sure as hell didn’t ordain them. Is it possible that he’s signed on to be a player in the quiet subjugation of the human race?

To him, everything really does seem like it’s falling apart. Widening political divisions, pointless wars, religious fundamentalism, media disinformation. But is this the solution? Would the world be better off ruled from the shadows by a small faction of elites? Or are they just another bunch of seductive megalomaniacs?