Havoc

by R.J. Piñeiro

When CIA Officer Tom Grant was pulled out of early retirement to investigate a recent high-tech robbery at United States Nanotechnologies, America's government-run agency for the development of nanoweapons, he had no idea that he would be propelled into the middle of a conspiracy that could threaten the survival of our species. Teaming up with young Rachel Muratani, a rising star in the agency, and Karen Frost, an old hand from the FBI, Grant tracks the cyber thieves to CyberWerke, a German conglomerate run by Rolf Hartman. Hartman has stretched his high-tech empire across Europe, and now plans to use the newly acquired nanotechnology to take his empire global.Among the stolen USN hardware is a prototype nanoassembler, a highly intelligent and self-propelled machine with the capability of creating and destroying any object allowed by the laws of physics, including itself---though it needs access to radioactive material in order to mine the fuel required to power its clones. When the nanoassembler breaks free from its relatively unsophisticated captors, it finds itself no longer restricted by the software shackles imposed on it while at USN. While the megalomaniacal Hartman races to recapture it, Grant and his team must not only stop Hartman, but find away to combat the nanoassembler as it embarks on its own mission to ensure the survival of its species---even if that means the eradication of the human race!At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

529 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 29, 2005

About the author

Born in Cuba and raised in Central America, R.J. Pineiro spent several years in the midst of civil wars before migrating to the United States in the late 1970s, first to Florida to attended Florida Air Academy in Melbourne. There, RJ earned a pilot's license and high school diploma in 1979, before heading to Louisiana for college.

R.J. earned a degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana State University in 1983 and joined the high-tech industry in Austin Texas, working in computer chip design, test, and manufacturing.

In the late 1980s R.J. began studying to become a novelist. Reading everything from classical literature to contemporary novels, R.J.'s love of storytelling became uncontrollable. Using an aging personal computer, R.J. decided to launch a writing career.

R.J.'s first published work, SIEGE OF LIGHTNING, a novel about a sabotaged space shuttle, was released by Berkley/Putnam in May of 1993. A second novel, ULTIMATUM, about a second Gulf War scenario, was released the following year, 1994, by Forge Books, which went on to publish R.J.'s next 12 novels over the following 13 years.

In 2015, R.J. teamed up with TV News military analyst Colonel David Hunt to kick off the "Hunter Stark Book Series." The first book in the series, WITHOUT MERCY, about ISIS gaining acquiring nuclear weapons, was released on 3.7.17. The second book, WITHOUT FEAR, about the war in Afghanistan, was released on 8.7.18

​In 2017, R.J. also teamed up with New York Times bestselling author Joe Weber. The result is ASHES OF VICTORY, a novel of global terrorism and international conflict released by Ignition Books on 9.3.18

In 2018, R.J. penned a nineteenth novel, AVENUE OF REGRETS, a mystery revolving around sex trafficking and domestic abuse released on 11.16.18

R.J. is married to L.M. Pineiro, an artist and jewelry designer. They have one son, Cameron & Daughter-in-Law Sarah, and two crazy dogs, Coco and Zea.

Reviews

[Kristin Lundgren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not read - couldn't get past the silly simile's scattered throughout the first few pages - trying to be a hard-boiled ex-spy and only seeming silly. Could have been good - nano-swarms, but just couldn't get past the first few pages, and I have read others of his I liked. Strange. "Sudden terror grips my intestines tighter than cheap Salvadoran food ... the thought of some terrorist a**hole tying me down and clogging my plumbing by supergluing my pee hole and my ass , watching me explode through my mouth, nose, and ears after a couple of immensely painful days without training the dew or..." Sorry to put you through that, but that was page 2 and as far as I got.

[Michael Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Middle-aged, wise-cracking, "retired" CIA agent brought back to save the world from super-capitalist maniac and nano-weapons gone rogue, yadda, yadda, yadda. A genre not really in my reading wheelhouse, so I really shouldn't comment. Convincing techno scenario nonetheless. But I didn't really care who emerged victorious either on the battlefield or in the boudoir.

[Mike Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to get through the first 50 pages or so, but a decent story once you get past the guy talking about his nether regions all the time.