Deadly Vibes

Will Manningham is a cybersleuth who knows some threats cannot be stopped from behind a keyboard. When the FBI sends him to Palermo to investigate a new outbreak of "The Havana Syndrome," a debilitating illness striking American diplomats around the world, he entices his wife and partner, Sally, to join him for what he says is an anniversary surprise. But Sally soon discovers that the romantic getaway is only a coverup, and Will's deception threatens their marriage.

Will uncovers a Russian mole inside the CIA flooding the government with disinformation, steering the United States and its allies away from mounting evidence that the Havana Syndrome is the result of a deliberate attack. The trail leads toward a secret installation off the Italian coast, and the deeper Will digs, the more disturbing the truth becomes: the Russians have perfected a cyber weapon capable of crippling the West and are about to deploy it on a massive scale. The weapon does not flatten cities, it does something more insidious. It attacks the nervous system with directed bursts of pulsed radio-frequency energy-leaving its victims injured, confused, and difficult to diagnose.

To complicate matters, Will becomes infatuated with a mysterious beauty he and Sally encounter on their travels. The woman is Alexandra Parushnikova, a Russian defector the CIA forces to become the paramour of the Russian oligarch masterminding the assault on the West. She holds the key to stopping the onslaught, but rivalry between the FBI and CIA keeps her and Will working on separate tracks. As Will's growing fascination with Alexandra begins to widen the wedge between him and Sally, trust erodes and loyalties blur. When Alexandra is being hunted down by Russian thugs, Sally must choose whether she will save her.  

All the while, somewhere in the Mediterranean, the countdown to an attack has already begun. As the West prepares to retaliate against the Russians with weapons of mass destruction, Will works feverishly to quell the assault.

Moving from Rome and Palermo to the Aeolian Islands, Deadly Vibes is a fast-moving, disturbingly realistic thriller of espionage, cyberwarfare, deception, and a marriage pushed toward its breaking point. In the fourth installment of the Will Manningham, Cybersleuth series, Peter Budetti delivers a chilling question that feels like it is ripped from today's headlines: What if the Havana Syndrome was only a dress rehearsal?