Andrew Watts and Dale Nelson have teamed up again for the latest Colt McShane adventure in Tournament of Shadows. This bold spy thriller in the Firewall series is another daring journey involving some of the most dangerous skills while utilizing some of the most unlikely assets.
McShane and team are in Israel trying to undermine the secretive Chinese government, who have their hands in everything. As far as the plan goes, the team inserts themselves into the Bay of Haifa shipping terminal complex, upload some software to exploit data the Chinese are stealing, then bounce. Of course, as every great plan comes together, there is an inevitability that it will just fall apart. All the while, hackers are turning an American dam into a flood zone, then another intrusion forces the grounding of all planes in American airspace.
While the plan didn’t come together perfectly, the United States did get one of their men, Liu Che, Chinese government official who turned an Admiral in the US Navy previously. Che is a very cunning and smart individual who might play well into the hands of McShane and team. While PAX AI and owner Jeff Kim have been recovering from their misfortunes, thief Guy Hawkinson has been attempting to upgrade his business since his previous AI island ended up as a parking lot. Hawkinson has been in deliberate meetings with the Chinese government for some type of affiliation.
McShane and Che come to an agreement that if Che wants his freedom back and his incarcerated wife back with him, he must play ball. The journey slowly unwinds through interrogation rooms and AI office buildings until the opportunity comes to travel to Buenos Aires to put Hawkinson out of business for good.
Watts and Nelson have finely crafted the Colt McShane legacy while leaning heavy into the world of AI competition. The storyline follows what you would see in any newspaper around the world with the ever-recurring threat of the abilities of rival governments. McShane has been through the ringer too, battling the legalities of a former flame who happens to be a Mossad operative. The journey builds slowly from Israel to Argentina, but it follows a more conventional timeline of action and then reaction. Watts and Nelson creatively deliver a story of good versus evil while combining the two at just the right time.
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