Playing God

Computer hacker Mark D'Auria breaks into the servers of Universal Software, the world's largest software company. He is just looking for programming flaws that he can exploit and sell. In the process, he accidentally stumbles across an attempt to hijack the unused processing power of every computer on the planet. Mark immediately recognizes that the company is creating a world-wide supercomputer.

Rogue elements high up in the US Government place him on Homeland Security's "Kill Or Capture List" because of what he has found. Mark is forced to go on the run and it takes all of his hacker skills just to stay alive. He desperately tries to uncover the purpose of the supercomputer. This leads him to the discovery that it is only a small part of a larger and much more deadly plan.

Hidden deep in the NSA's massive computer network is a top secret file called Lamplighter. The file details plans to ignite a third world war. It also contains the blueprint for an event so unthinkable that it defies belief. Armed conflict breaks out in the Strait of Taiwan as the United States and China come to blows. The clock is running down and Mark soon discovers that he is up against an elusive and very powerful sociopath known as Kane.

He is thrown together with Alex Steele, a female FBI agent on the cusp of going rogue and Antonio Felli, a former Italian Secret Service agent. Kane's influence seems to be found everywhere they turn. The three are unsure of whom they can trust as the entire world hovers on the brink of war.

They race against time to unravel a web of global intrigue that includes the Vatican, an assassinated pope, an ancient manuscript, a centuries old secret society and a deadly deep space probe poised for launch at Area 51.