Cy Baxter, creator and leader of the FUSION project, is either a brilliant, benevolent genius or a tech giant bent on controlling the world. In a groundbreaking partnership with the CIA, Cy intends to prove he can track and capture anyone, anywhere, halting terrorists before they leave the house.
Ten people have been chosen to participate in Cy’s “Go Zero” project. If they can stay off-grid and evade capture for 30 days, they win $3 million. If all 10 are captured, Cy will win a contract with the CIA that will change the course of surveillance and the way we live forever.
The subjects are a mix of professionals such as security experts and military and smart, everyday people who think they can evade surveillance. We will meet all 10 subjects during the course of the novel, but it’s Kaitlyn Day we’re interested in - a librarian from Boston with fragile mental health, she is arty, single, quiet. Kaitlyn does quite well on day one and Cy starts to feel bad that the game will be over so soon for Kaitlyn, but against the odds, she begins to become a thorn in his side.
Going Zero has all the ingredients of a great thriller: the chapters are short, and the characters developed clearly from the start. Cy is so intelligent, his brain so busy that his meltdowns are sudden and as impressive as a toddler’s. His partner Erika is just as invested in the project for deeply personal reasons. Kaitlyn has much more going on than a hankering for $3m. The CIA is suspicious and cagey and the interns are terrified and ambitious.
The stakes are high in this novel, keeping the reader glued to the page. Make sure you have a good chunk of time when you start to read as you won’t want to put it down.
