A smart, well-constructed sci-fi first contact thriller In 2017, a mysterious interstellar object transited the Solar System bound for deep space. By the time it was noticed, it had already passed Earth. It was soon forgotten, dismissed as a comet or planetary fragment. Earth's scientists turned to more pressing matters. But it was no mere rock. An alien spaceship looking for habitable planets, it sent a machine probe to Earth, containing a sentient quantum computer. After crash landing in South America, the probe was found by tech billionaire Christian Becker, who used its computational power to give himself groundbreaking technology and unlimited wealth. . . . Until something goes wrong. Someone hacks into and shuts down Becker's secret lab. Becker is certain that War veteran Will Logan and his missing wife, Alex, are the saboteurs. Logan is kidnapped and brought to Becker's highly secret research campus. But nothing is what it seems . . .