The Ascendant

Book excerpt: “Warfare goes digital in movie and TV writer Drew Chapman’s fast-moving debut, a high-stakes thriller that pits the online might of China against that of the United States” (Publishers Weekly) as reluctant patriot Garrett Reilly races around the globe to avert total war. Numbers don’t lie…Not according to Garrett Reilly who, just two weeks past his twenty-sixth birthday, thinks he’s probably the best bond analyst at his brokerage, maybe the best in all of lower Manhattan. Garrett’s memory for numbers is photographic. But he doesn’t just memorize numbers: he sorts them, ranks them, senses patterns. As he watches buy and sell numbers float across his computer monitor, Garrett notices what nobody else can: that US Treasury bonds are being sold off at an alarming rate. Two hundred billion dollars worth. It’s a discovery that Garrett knows will make him stinking rich. But then the US military arrives at his office and Garrett’s life is thrown into free fall. Captain Alexis Truffant explains that Garrett has stumbled on something bigger and scarier than he could have ever imagined: the first attack in a covert war of unthinkable proportions. Garrett begins to link a series of seemingly unrelated—and very dangerous—events that start in New York, but continue to Las Vegas, Oregon, and all lead back to rural China. Suddenly, Garrett is the only one left standing between an unknown enemy and the very security of our country. The only problem? Numbers don’t lie…but sometimes governments do. “The Hunt for Red October meets Hackers…Ascendant is a must-read for international thriller fans” (Booklist, starred review). “This is a wild ride through the headlines of our times” (Kirkus Reviews).