The Chaos Protocol

The Millennium Trilogy #1

by Nancy J. McKibben, Nancy McKibben

What would happen if a mysterious programmer were to sabotage the y2k project of a major bank by slipping a malevolent computer worm into the bank's source code? And if the worm were to spread from bank to bank, imperiling the global economy?

When the unthinkable happens, y2k project head Annette Ashby must lead her dedicated team of y2k computer experts in a race against the millennial clock, a task complicated by her attraction to the two leading suspects, nerd-next-door Leo Hermann, and the dashing Russian émigré Vladimir Borodin. The FBI discovers that the worm has also burrowed into the accounts of the Department of Defense, the CIA is called in, the action shifts to St. Petersburg - and the countdown to 2000 inexorably continues. . .

About the Author:

Nancy J. McKibben studied French and Russian languages at the Ohio State University, then spent six years as a journalist living and traveling in the United States, Asia, Western Europe, Russia, and Eastern Europe, where she had the opportunity to interview Pope John Paul II, then-Cardinal Karol Wojtylla. She homeschooled her six children, and has stayed active as a speaker and writer through the publication of various homeschool periodicals, newsletters, and articles. Her husband Michael, founder of several software development companies, serves as her technical consultant. Nancy lives with her family in Columbus, Ohio.

356 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 1999

Reviews

[Nancy McKibben · Rating 5 out of 5]

My father was a great science fiction reader, and he belonged to an SF book club, whose monthly volumes I would eagerly devour. I don't actually read much science fiction now, but when I first heard about the y2k problem, I thought that it sounded just like the plot of a certain kind of science fiction novel: a small band of dedicated scientists (in this case, computer programmers) in a race against the clock to save the world from catastrophe.

So I jumped on a y2k email list and began educating myself. This was an international list, and these were the world experts, and they really were a dedicated band of people working day and night to solve the problem. I became known to them through my rather unusual questions (I was not a computer person and I had a different slant on things), which were answered kindly and patiently, and in the end I did feel a strong bond with all those hard-working y2k people.

Of course,these same hard-working people actually managed to fix the y2k problem in time, and the millennium turned with more of a whimper than a bang. But in the meantime I had concocted a novel with a y2k setting whose plot rested more on the ramifications of y2k than the event (or non-event)itself - a computer worm that would take advantage of y2k to move money from American banks to Russian accounts,and a dedicated team of programmers racing to uncover the evildoer and stop the debacle before the year 2000.

I had great fun writing it and hope that you have equal fun reading it!