Mortal
Threat is a stand alone spin-off novel from the previous three Threat Series
books. I wrote the story wondering about the intersection of science and
religion in the place where the oldest human remains and tools have been
discovered. The cure for Ebola serves as the prize that pharmaceutical
companies and ISIS seek for their own purposes while our heroine, Amanda
Garrett, attempts to preserve it for its intended purposes. As she flees the
assassins, her orphans lead her directly to the Olduvai Gorge, while they are
under the watchful eyes of those that seek the cure. Amanda’s character arc is
one of the most satisfying I have ever created, as we watch her struggle with
his pacifist intentions amidst the chaos and danger of the Serengeti and her
pursuing assailants.
EXCERPT:
Mwanza, Tanzania: January 2015
Amanda
Garrett used her heel to kick open the plywood emergency room door. Her two
rubber-gloved hands were holding one end of a medical stretcher while her
protégé, Kiram Omiga, held the other.
“She doesn’t
have much time,” Amanda said. The small African girl on the litter was huddled
in the fetal position, Ebola-infectious drool seeping from her mouth. The girl
was wearing a pink T-shirt and green shorts. Amanda noticed the dilated pupils
and white salt stains on her face from a sweat that had stopped hours ago.
“Age is
eleven. Name is Likika,” Kiram said in a calm voice. At nineteen years old,
Kiram had grown up in the Mwanza orphanage. He had known Amanda since he was
fourteen after her first summer volunteering to assist the war orphans like
him.
Amanda
commanded, “Ready, lift.”
She and
Kiram lifted Likika onto a makeshift operating table. They were both wearing
rubberized gloves, olive green U.S. Army chemical protective suits with
charcoal liners and gas masks. Amanda’s initial research had been on finding a
cure for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which they believed they had done.
They had accumulated over ninety positive-to-negative seroconversions on
orphans and truck drivers riddled with HIV. Those were substantial results for
her clandestine CIA program called Project
Nightingale. Because the two viruses shared a common multiplying protein
mechanism known as TSG101, Amanda had experimented on one dying Ebola patient
two months ago. He had lived. Soon, truck drivers began dropping off infected
Ebola patients at the “miracle clinic,” hoping Amanda could save them. By her
count, they had saved nine Ebola victims. She was eager to alert the CIA that
the mysterious formula was ready for mass-market production.
“Syringe,”
Amanda said, holding out her hand. Kiram moved to her left as she stared at
Likika, whose eyes were open wide as if she were astonished. The gas mask
eyelets blocked some of Amanda’s peripheral vision, which caused her to grow
impatient. “Talk to me, Kiram.”
“Here, Miss Amanda,” Kiram said. He
reappeared holding a clear syringe and three-inch needle. The tube was filled
with a substance the color and texture of tar. Through the gas masks, their
voices contained a tinny, muffled quality.
“Need you to
hold her, Kiram. If she’s still with us, this is going to hurt like hell,”
Amanda said.
“I
understand,” Kiram said. He bent over Likika and gently held her by the
shoulders while Amanda inserted the needle into her left shoulder, as if she
were giving her a vaccination. Applying steady pressure to the plunger, she
heard Kiram chant a native Swahili melody to Likika, who, as far as Amanda
could tell, was unconscious and close to death.
Having
transitioned from only performing HIV vaccinations and cures to also conducting
Ebola testing, Amanda was painfully aware that her Spartan facilities were
inadequate. But how could she deny the victims the potential of a cure or
prevention of disease? She couldn’t. While she was a Columbia University
medical school student who’d spent the last five summer and winter breaks in
Tanzania at this orphanage, she believed in the inverse of the Hippocratic
oath. Instead of first, do no harm,
Amanda’s maxim was first, help who you
can.
The needle
puncturing Likika’s arm created a trickle of blood, which cut a path through
the salt stains onto the operating table. Amanda focused on the black serum she
was injecting through the hypodermic needle into the young girl’s system. As
the plunger reached the bottom of the barrel, she was concerned that Likika
hadn’t responded at all. She retracted the needle and immediately dumped the
entire syringe in a hazardous waste container to her right.
“Pulse?” she
asked, looking back at Likika and placing an alcohol swab on the injection
site. She carefully wiped at the blood.
Kiram looked
at Amanda and removed his glove.
“Hook her
up, Kiram. Don’t do that,” she implored.
“It’s okay.
I’m careful.” Kiram gingerly grabbed Likika’s wrist with his bare fingers and
paused. Like HIV, Ebola could only be transmitted via contact with bodily
fluids. But still, Amanda thought.
Amanda
counted the seconds, holding the gauze on the puncture site. Once she hit
sixty, she asked, “Anything?”
Kiram said
nothing. His eyes were focused on the girl’s blank face.
After
another sixty seconds, Amanda took a deep breath, which was like breathing
through a wet towel on a hot afternoon. “Come on, Likika. Work with us, honey,”
she whispered.
Mortal Threat Synopsis
Medical
school student Amanda Garrett and American doctors working secretly in Africa
have found a cure for the Ebola and Human Immunodeficiency Viruses. Leaders of
the Islamic State want the cure so they can show the world Islam is a
benevolent religion that all Africans should follow. The President of the
United States believes an alleged 30,000-year-old Sub-Saharan religious text
called The Book of Catalyst identifies him as being of divine origin. As Amanda
operates her portion of the clandestine CIA Project Nightingale in a Tanzanian
orphanage, she is attacked and chased by brutal killers called The Leopard and
The Cheetah. Amanda has 48 hours to escape across the Serengeti Plain before
the remaining vials of the cure expire. The Islamic State escalates attacks
across the Middle East using freshly converted fighters from Africa. The
American President, however, chooses not to deploy sufficient troops to save
U.S. Special Forces, including Amanda's husband, assisting in the air war
against ISIS. As Amanda attempts to save the rapidly decomposing formula for
the Ebola and HIV cures, she finds herself at the center of a clash between
warring media titans, Jonathan Beckwith and Zhor al Rhazziq, who are following
her every step toward the Olduvai Gorge, which some scientists claim to be the
origin of human life.
When I'm not
writing, I like to read, and I read books in my genre. I'm very choosy in my reading and there's a
lot to choose from. That's why I like Tony Tata. There is a 'been there, done that' feel to
his storytelling, his characters are vivid and engaging, and his plotting is
tight and well- paced. So I highly
recommend Mortal Threat and Foreign and Domestic."
— Dick Couch, New York Times
Bestselling Author of Act of Revenge and Always Faithful, Always Forward
"...captivating,
riveting. Once you start MORTAL THREAT,
you won't want to put it down."
— Grant Blackwood, NEW YORK TIMES
bestselling author of The Briggs Tanner series
"AJ
Tata's Mortal Threat reads at a blistering pace while weaving a cure for Ebola,
a 30,000 year old religious document, a president who thinks he's of divine
origin, and a burgeoning ISIS threat into a tightly knit plot. Amanda Garrett
is a new breakout heroine as she races across the Serengeti to save the cure
from the evil men who seek it. Great stuff."
— Jeremy Robinson, International
Bestselling Author of ISLAND 731 and SECONDWORLD
Released on January 15, 2015
About A. J.
Tata
A.J. Tata is a career
paratrooper and infantryman. Retiring as a Brigadier General, he commanded
combat units in the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the 10th Mountain
Division. A West Point graduate and Harvard University National Security
Fellow, he is the award winning author of three critically acclaimed novels,
Sudden Threat, Rogue Threat, and Hidden Threat. He was also a writer in Glenn
Beck's New York Times Bestselling Miracles and Massacres. Tony has been a
frequent foreign policy guest commentator on Fox News, CBS News, and The Daily
Buzz. NBC's Today Show featured General Tata's career transition from the army
to education leadership. He served as Chief Operations Officer for Washington,
DC, Public Schools and then as the superintendent of Schools in Raleigh-Wake
County, North Carolina, the sixteenth largest school district in the nation. An
avid surfer, he is married to Jodi and has two children, Brooke and Zachary.
Connect with
A. J. Tata
·
Website: http://www.ajtata.com/
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAJTata
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajtata
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