The Chaos Agent
Author: Mark Greaney
Publisher: Berkley
ISBN: 9780593548141
Futuristic robots take centre stage in the Gray Man’s latest thriller, The Chaos Agent. Courtland Gentry aka The Gray Man and Zoya Zakharova are lovers trying to enjoy a peaceful hideaway by Guatemala’s beautiful Lake Atitlán when a tiny drone with facial recognition capabilities tracks them down. A worldwide manhunt is out for them, and Russia has a capture-or-kill order out on Zoya.
Now one of the most infamous killers for hire, Scott Kincaid, aka Lancer, is after them.
Meanwhile, back to the main plot, multibillionaire Anton Hinton is building a lethal autonomous weapon driven by artificial intelligence. Strangely, over a 34-hour period, 10 people involved in AI and robotics have been killed around the world. Hinton insists he’s just trying to bring some sanity into the world with these machines engaging in any necessary fighting and doing so with perfect judgement, human wars could become a thing of the past.
Mark Greaney, a terrific action writer, has hitched on the AI wagon with a science fiction setup involving bomb-wielding hexacopters, rifle-wielding robot dogs, and a superintelligent creature named Cyrus that’s controlled by 800 IBM mainframe computers.
In a scene emblematic of the story’s chaos, Zoya lies in a dead man’s blood as the man’s left leg is hit. And, in a contemplative moment with Zoya, Court says he just wants to be with her in peace, while he wonders if he’d ever be able to stop killing those who deserved to die. Indeed, violence is the point of his life.
Greaney could dial back the bloodletting a notch and still have an exciting story.
Ready to turn down the offer and move, Court wants to bug out, leave Guatemala, and put down roots elsewhere, knowing it’s just a matter of time until more bad news comes knocking. Proving Court’s instincts correct, it’s later revealed that the Russians, who have a capture-or-kill order out on both Zoya and Gentry, have tasked their most lethal operator, a contract killer known as Lancer, with eliminating the couple no matter the cost.
Right off the bat, after hitting their apartment and chasing Court and Zoya to a nearby marina, Lancer almost succeeds in his efforts. But after a nail-biting gunfight, where Greaney still manages to cut the tension with well-placed dry humour by way of the sarcastic Gentry, the duo escapes and goes back on the run.
The Chaos Agent is Greaney at his best. With AI getting a lot of attention from various media outlets and personalities, it’s inevitable that thriller writers, many of whom race to beat future headlines, will touch on the topic in their new books. Without spoiling anything, Greaney’s take on all of this, and more specifically, the way he envisions AI and robotics could one day be weaponised, is both the most fascinating and terrifying of them all. Lightning-fast and packed full of intense, high-flying action, Mark Greaney outdoes himself with The Chaos Agent, an absolute must for fans of Robert Ludlum, Vince Flynn, and Jack Carr.