When CIA officer Tom Grant was pulled out of early retirement investigate a high-tech robbery at United States Nanotechnologies, America 's government-run agency for the development of nanoweapons, he had no idea that he would be propelled into the middle of a conspiracy that could threaten the survival of our species.

Teaming up with young Rachel Muratani, a rising star in the agency, and Karen Frost, an old hand from the FBI, Grant tracks the thieves to CyberWerke, a German conglomerate run by rolf Hartman. Hartman has stretched his high-tech empire across Europe , and now plans to use the newly acquired nano-technology to take his empire global.

Among the stolen USN hardware is prototype nanoassembler, a highly intelligent, self-propelled machine with the capability of creating and destroying any object allowed by the laws of physics, including itself-though it needs access to radioactive material in order to mine the fuel required to power its clones. When the nanoassembler breaks free from its relatively unsophisticated captors, it finds itself no linger restricted by the software shack-les imposed on it at USN. While the megalomaniacal Hartman races to recapture it, Grant and his team must not only stop Hartman, but find a way to combat the nanoassembler as it embarks on its own mission to ensure the survival of its species – even if that means the eradication of the human race!

 

R.J. Pineiro is an 22-year veteran of the computer industry, where he works on leading-edge microprocessors. He is the author of several internationally-acclaimed novels, including Conspiracy.com, Firewall, Cyberterror, Shutdown, Breakthrough, Exposure, and Ultimatum, as well as the millennium thrillers, 01-01-00 and Y2K. His new novel, HAVOC, will be published in December of 2005. R.J. Pineiro was born in Cuba and grew up in Central America . He enjoys flying, has a black belt in martial arts, is a certified SCUBA diver, and has traveled extensively through Europe, Asia, and the Americas both for his computer business as well as to conduct research for his novels. He makes his home in Austin , Texas , where he lives with his wife, Lory Anne, and his son, Cameron.