Microbiologist Michael Cochrane has been murdered. His brother, Paul, wants to find out who did it and why. It's clear that Michael was working with cyano-bacteria, the bacteria that crack water molecules and release free oxygen. It's less clear why this would get anybody killed.
Accompanied by a beautiful industrial spy, Elena Sandoval, Paul follows the trail from California to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Along the way, the truth emerges: Michael had found a way to get cyano-bacteria to crack hydrogen out of simple water molecules, producing enough hydrogen to cleanly power the world, practically for free. No wonder everyone, from Middle-Eastern heavies to hired domestic muscle, suddenly seems to be trying to get in Paul and Elena's way.
The author's excellence at combining hard science with believable characters and an attention-grabbing plot makes him one of our most accessible and entertaining storytellers.
A six-time winner of science fiction's Hugo Award, a former editor of Analog and former fiction editor of Omni, and a past president of the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America, Ben Bova is the author of over a hundred works of science fact and fiction. He lives in Naples, Florida.
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