Child Zero by Chris Holm

 Child Zero takes place in the not-too-distant future . . . 2028 or thereabouts. Bacterial infections are running amok they become resistant to the wide spectrum of antibiotics. Millions are dying. It doesn't help that some biological hackers let loose the Harbringer Virus that has yet to be contained. In NYC, the city has set up Park City in Central Park. A tent city for the sickest of its inhabitants. Attempting to keep the populace healthy and distinct from the infirm, the federal government set up a new cabinet post called the Department of Biological Security (DBE) and gave it unprecedented leeway to carry out questionable mandates. Then there are the EndTimers, a loose pack of crazies intent on helping humanity rush headlong towards its eventual destruction. 

Jake Gibson is a NYPD detective and partner with Amy, an American-Muslim and all-around good detective. He is a former military medic. Single father to 4.5 yo Zoe. His wife died at the onset of the pandemics. He was dating Hannah, a general surgeon in the City, but he got morose one too many times with her and he broke things off. Jake and Amy catch a floater in Hell's Kitchen. But Zoe is sick so his local source for childcare refuses him so Jack calls on Hannah. 

Jake and Amy check out the corpse who must've been an escapee from Park City so that's where the investigation starts. Upon arrival, they encounter a heavy DBS presence - too heavy for what appears to be just a bonfire by the residents. Getting closer to the pyre, they see that the fuel isn't wood. The onsite rep from the coroner's office tells Jake and Amy that none of the victims bear the markings of any illness - murder, yes. Illness, no. Their tents have been tossed. Looks like someone got past security and committed the atrocity, looking for something or someone. In particular, an illegal immigrant kid named Mat and his Uncle Gabriel. Why? Because Mat's not sick. Never has been. Back home. In the USA. Never so much as a sniffle.

Using security footage from nearby retail shops, they find the entry point, question the guard (Jake has a way of going old-school when those skills seem apropos), get the guard's DBS contact and follow that agent to an abandoned building in an attempt to find Mat. As they approach the building, they hear shots and run to see what's happening . . . and the building explodes killing Gabriel and setting Mat on the run. Jake sees this kid on the run and grabs him. One hand on Mat, other on his gun, and John Q Public with a camera phone. Not long before the video is uploaded, Jake's boss sees it and promptly suspends Jake (and Amy). 

NYC has a mess on their hands. Dozen's murdered and used as fuel for a massive bonfire. All the squatters killed in that explosion. And now Jake, Amy, and Mat are on the run trying to see how it's al connected while staying hidden within a city littered with CTV camera everywhere no one to trust. The PD want them based on the explosion and rough handling of a 12yo latino boy. The Feds want them because the Feds have jurisdiction over Park City. The EndTimers want them because . . . well, because they are crazy. 

While it should be pretty obvious that there is something really unique about Mat, why so many different authorities want him is murky. That means Holm has dreamed up a plot with two main points: Mat's uniqueness and who stands to benefit if and when he gets caught. 

And therein is the crux of the matter. Two cops and a kid (plus a surgeon and Jake's 4.5 yo daughter) manage to stay ahead of the full power and reach of the DBS and the NYPD (and various other secondary groups). And while that might sound a bit too much for the garden variety reader of medical thrillers, trust me when I say that Holm is quite adept at stringing us along by revealing the minutest of clues to keep the plot rolling and us reading. 

But I will say that I had to work a bit at following the story in the first few chapters. Maybe 10% of the book. Once I got past that, Holm has us sprinting all over and under NYC toward a conclusion that some might say, "saw that coming" or, "if that story every happened and it became public . . . " Either way, as breakneck paced medical mysteries go, this one's worth it. 

Holm always wanted to be on the front lines of viral detection for the CDC. Was in the PhD program in microbiology at UVa, but quit when his penchant for storytelling overcame his interest in diseases. He has about six other novels (one, The Killing Kind, reviewed by us) in two distinct series. Makes me wonder it Jake Gibson will be reappearing. 

Child Zero is to be published the week of May 9, 2022.

ECD

The Killing Kind by Chris Holm

You can almost hear that kid’s jingle, “Michael and Evie sitting in a tree . . . .” Evie is the daughter of a UVa prof. Michael is a child of the Virginia foster care system. To say Evie’s parents don’t approve is an understatement. In spite of that, both bolt from Charlottesville after high school graduation and migrate into New England. She manages to get through college, but Michael enlists and heads for Afghanistan. The plan: one tour, discharge, home, wedding, family, life. 

An IED changed all that. One survivor, and it wasn’t Michael Hendricks. Michael crawled out of the wreckage, hid for days to avoid the Taliban, then limped into Pakistan to heal. According to the Army, Michael was KIA. Evie had to move on and a few years after college got married, moved to a rural farmhouse outside of the DC suburbs in Virginia . . . and is now pregnant. Thus endeth that chapter (you think). 

Michael, on the other hand, stayed dead, managed to slip back into the US via Canada and lives in a cabin outside of Portland, Maine. His best friend Lester from the Army, the only survivor of that mission, owns a waterside bar/bait shop in Portland. He is wheelchair bound after the IED, but still maintains his skills as a hacker for Michael in his new venture.

Michael is a hitman. 

But not just your garden variety hitman. Michael is very specialized. He uses Lester’s skills to find out who is being targeted for elimination. The reason for the contract doesn’t matter. And with ‘organized crime’ now being multinational and somewhat connected with each other (via “The Council”), there is no shortage of potential targets. Once they isolate a potential target, Michael makes contact, tells the tale, and offers the target his life, at the princely sum of 10X the contract, to take out the hired hitman.

Michael is a hitman who takes out hitmen. And on more than one occasion, Michael saved a target slated for elimination by The Council. So Michael isn’t getting a Christmas card from The Council anytime soon.

And he manages to steal away part of his fee into a ‘fund’ that helps Evie stay solvent.

A major player in The Council was betrayed by one of his accountants. Eric (or Eddie. depends on which end of WitSec one is) testified and was then quickly hidden by the DOJ outside of Kansas City. Eric/Eddie was bored and mostly broke (if he tried to access the money he jacked from his former employers, both The Council and DOJ would know and Eric/Eddie’s world would  crash around him). So, Eric/Eddie hacked into a local casino’s slot machine system so he would win one of those mega-jackpots. 

The problem is when winning something like that, the casino wants to milk the publicity around the awarding of the $6 million check. That means pictures, media, and lots of attention. The Council has found Eric/Eddie and sends their own hitman, Leonwood, to KC to kill Eric/Eddie in a very public and messy fashion - the awarding of the check. Michael tells Eric/Eddie and gets hired to take out Leonwood. 

But The Council has another plan - use the hit on Eric/Eddie to draw out this ghost who has been a thorn in their side. They hire another hitman, a Swiss gunman (Englemann) who has his own legendary reputation. 

So, we have hitman #1 (Michael) looking for hitman #2 (Leonwood) while hitman #3 follows hitman #2 in order to flush out hitman #1. And all this culminates at the ceremony to award Eric/Eddie his big $6 million check. And the FBI is on the sidelines without a program that identifies the players.

To say things go south at the ceremony would be an understatement. Dozens upon dozens are killed at the ceremony, hundreds are injured. Michael is both on the run and chasing Englemann on the road to where much of what is important to Michael is now a potential target. 

Holm has fashioned a wham-bam thriller, which is presented at a breakneck pace right up to the last page. This probably qualifies as one of WCD’s airplane reads as it would be a welcome distraction on a coast-coast flight. Holm has written a previous trilogy (not a thriller, I don’t think) and based on the way this ended, I would suspect there will be other Michael Hendricks’ books in our future. Excellent escapism. 

Available September 15, 2015

East Coast Don