DAVID IGNATIUS is the best-selling author of Body of Lies and The Increment, among others, and prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post. He has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for more than 25 years.
In The Quantum Spy, his 10th novel to date, he offers a thrilling and mind-boggling story that pitches the United States against China in a race to be the first country to build a quantum computer.
The story starts with the attempted blackmailing of Dr Ma Yubi, a Chinese computer scientist attached as technical adviser to China’s Ministry of State Security, by the CIA covert team headed by Deputy Director of Operations John Vandel.
Ma is attending a scientific conference in Sentosa Island, Singapore. CIA operative Harris Chang is tasked with recruiting Ma as an agent for the CIA, by first wiping clean Ma’s bank account and then offering him huge financial incentives to support his mistress and opulent lifestyle.
Unfortunately, something goes wrong and Ma commits suicide. Luckily for Vandel and Chang, they manage to procure Ma’s mijian, a secret diary of the Chinese scientist’s private notes.
Meanwhile, the Chinese have inserted a mole inside the CIA, compromising American efforts to develop a quantum computer, the ultimate in data processing.
Vandel’s team must quickly identify the mole codenamed Rukou (The Doorway), before it’s too late.
The mind game between Chinese minister Li Zian and Vandel to be the ultimate winner unfolds in many twists and turns that will keep readers riveted to the tale.
Add to that the internal struggle between China’s Ministry of State Security and the People’s Liberation Army, and things begin to turn explosive. Chang soon finds himself caught up in the crossfire.
The Quantum Spy is a thriller that provides an interesting glimpse at the quantum leap the Chinese have made in digital technology.
