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abkeller
May 24, 2013abkeller rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Pia Grazdani had lived a hard life. Her early years were spent in the foster care system, where she endured a nightmare of psychological problems. Like an avenging angel, Pia’s true father, a powerful crime boss, miraculously showed up to save her, but for Pia, it was too late. She was already angry and bitter about being denied a normal childhood. She needed to get away. Pia took a research jog at Nano, LLC in Boulder, Colorado, a firm poised on the brink of striking breakthroughs in nanotechnology. The tiny microbivores gobbled up viruses and other diseases and were small enough to flow through the tiniest capillaries. All is going well and Pia loves her new job until she stumbles across the body of a runner. The Oriental man has apparently suffered a complete collapse and isn’t breathing. Immediately, Pia begins CPR. The EMTs transfer the patient to the hospital, where he seems to make a miraculous recovery. Even stranger is the sudden appearance of Nano security personnel, who spirit the runner away before a full battery of hospital tests can be completed. Why were Nano personnel so interested in the Chinese runner and what else is going on at the facility that Pia doesn’t know about? Pia begins to investigate, but her attempts to learn anything are repeatedly thwarted. Her friends, George and Paul, aren’t able to uncover anything, either, and caution Pia about becoming too determined in her quest for the truth. At last, Pia realizes she has to go to the top. She ingratiates herself with Zachary Berman, the head of Nano, LLC. The lecherous deviant is enthralled with Pia’s beauty, wit and intelligence. Certain that he will eventually win her affections, Berman pursues her. Berman knows that nothing must get in the way of securing the Chinese funding for nano-robotics, but he cannot seem to help himself. Pia is like a fever in his blood, perhaps a deadly obsession from which he will not recover. Intriguing and thought provoking, this book stands out in its scope of cutting edge technology and realistic ending. In this case, the heroine is swallowed up in the white slave pipeline and the bad guys triumph. Frighteningly realistic.