THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING
Author : BIll ClINTON and JAMES PATTERSON
Publisher : Penguin, Rs 1,878
With fictional President Duncan as the protagonist and former POTUS Bill Clinton as a co-author, this book about cyberterrorism is thrilling, eye-opening, and very readable, writes GAUTAM MUKHERJEE
This is the first novel from the former two-term President of the United States, Bill Clinton. It is in collaboration with James Patterson, who holds the Guinness World Record for the ‘Most Entries on The New York Times Best-Seller list’. Patterson has sold over 375 million books worldwide. Why has the former POTUS co-authored this novelIJ One, because of his obvious drawing power. And second, because he knows first-hand the intricacies of how the US government and White House work. It lends the novel considerable plausibility, even if it has been imbued with a preachy let-us-build-a-better-world quality that more morally ambivalent thrillers might have excluded.
But it is highly relevant to our times, because its subject matter is echoed by an increasing number of alleged cyber-warfare news reports from all over the world. In reality, bank accounts have been emptied. Aeroplanes have mysteriously crashed. Identities have been altered. Vital defence software has been compromised or stolen. National elections, most recently, the election of President Donald Trump has been allegedly influenced by Russia. Russia and China are indeed rumored to be the aces at this form of 21st century warfare via the Internet of Things (IoT), and the “dark web” even as America and others scramble to catch up. Without an effective counter to this breach of systems, the helpless vulnerability of the electronic universe is starkly exposed. Of course, each level of threat is superseded by fresh challenges further down the pike, but as a problem it is here to stay, and this novel highlights this fact.
Even if oversimplified, cyberthreat in this portrayal is often reminiscent of popular quiz programmes where young techies are engaged in a search for clues. Patterson keeps the narrative gripping with consummate skill throughout, and the book is certainly a page-turner.
The main proposition is that a deadly virus, developed by Islamic terrorists, “The Sons of Jihad,” could bring every internet-based system in the US and everything elsewhere linked with it, to a standstill. That means all financial records and backups, the electrical grid and transmission stand to be disabled. The same goes for water purification systems and cellphones. Even defence and nuclear weaponised equipment stands to lose access to its prompts and commands. All the software could be deleted, rendering all computer systems, cloud storage and back-up systems lobotomised and turned into vapour and plastic shells.
The thriller in the book is in how can it, code-named “Dark Ages” by the protagonist and his core investigative team, be stopped, or fooledIJ The principal protagonist is the fictional President Duncan, who sets about personally thwarting the plot and playing hero to the Jihadi villains led by the shadowy Suliman Cindoruk, his name anglicised to a T.
And of course, there is a high profile mole or two in the US government. When they are outed, can they be punished, or will the political fallout be far too greatIJ Are there echoes of this democratic dilemma here in our own country when it comes to bringing high-profile political figures down to custody on criminal chargesIJ There is, however, no point ruining the reader’s delight with any more detailed revelations on the plot.
There is cyberterrorism centre-stage, but also old fashioned assassins to shut the mouths of those in the know of the string-pullers behind the scenes. It also has Secret Service operatives and Commandos to stymie and remedy their doings. All this, accompanied by the plethora of resources such as surveillance cameras, helicopters, drones and Hellfire missiles, that any militarily mighty US administration can bring into play. There are German and Israeli heads of government in conference, top-level stoic Russian denials of skulduggery.
The Russians are not only the usual suspects with their Iron Curtain era dreams of bringing down the United States. In the end, the novel also stars the amazing Poirot-like detective skills of the storybook President himself. Also, the amount of intelligence the fictional President can ingest on the move is formidable. Not only is he in Bruce Willis-style Die Hard action continuously, his brain, too, is ticking over making sense of the puzzle and providing accurate and effective leadership. This comes with an armed forces background and heroic combat action in early life. But then, there’s a debilitating disease kept under wraps from the public that ruins the President’s platelet count. It renders him fuzzy and dizzy even as he solves problems through the mental fog like an Einstein. He is, however, running on fistfuls of steroids, and that may be the secret of his being able to stay on the job.
However, all the detective work President Duncan of the book puts in, is not all that convincing. Presidents of the United States have to be finely-tuned political animals to reach up to the pinnacle, yes. There is little room for much else, even from their previous lives before politics took a hold. For them to be Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple simultaneously is decidedly far-fetched. Still, winning the cyberwar, not single-handedly, but certainly as the captain in the captain’s chair, shoots the fictional President’s popularity ratings from 30 per cent up into the Eighties.
Is this then, a true top-drawer thrillerIJ Who financed the JihadisIJ Was it a disgruntled faction of the tentacular Saudi royal familyIJ What did it hope to achieve — again a rather naïve notion that “destroying” America was destroying Israel in the West Asian theatre too, as if it was a two-for-one McDonald’s combo. And who hired the assassinsIJ Would it be the diabolical Russians after allIJ
There is a widowed father as President and an only daughter for the emotional quotient, some bad judgements and betrayal of trust added in to keep things real and prevent the fictional President from tipping into paragon of virtue territory.
last word — the cyberterrorism theme is timely in this readable book, so why quibble about the implausibilities of the plotIJ