Nano

Nanotech promises all things: Immortality, invincibility, wealth beyond imagination--and the utter destruction of Mankind. One man has it-and no one knows who... Mitchell Swain is the richest man in the world--until he announces the "ultimate technological breakthrough." The world stops for the press conference-and sees him assassinated. No one knows what he was going to say. Almost no one. Jennifer Rayne intends to find out. A leading journalist covering high-tech, she was scheduled to interview Swain after the press conference. Instead, she investigates his murder. What she finds is a scientist to whom Swain has funneled billions... A desperate U.S. government following the same clues... And a bizarre technology which promises invincibility, immortality, and the ability to destroy any enemy--or the earth itself. Mankind has entered the final arms race. It will last two days. As this breathlessly fast-paced nanothriller unfolds, readers are taken on a stunning tour de force of nanotechnology's promises and perils--until the fate of the earth itself hangs in the balance... * Winner of Nanotechnology Now's Editor's Choice Award *

John Robert Marlow is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Parade, Omni, and numerous other publications. His Nano screenplay (based upon this book) has been honored as a finalist in the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Program of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the organization which awards the Oscars), and may soon become a motion picture. This is his first novel.

The awful chitter grew, and the spreading, crawling wave moved nearer--disintegrating street, walls, Jen's Explorer and the corner where she had stood mere seconds before.

The warehouse across the street began to disappear at a rapidly accelerating pace and the crawling, chittering wave of destruction ascended the posts of streetlamps and dissolved them, plunging the street into darkness.

On the dirt which had been a paved street but a moment before, nothing remained; not ash, not cinder, no pool of liquid or pile of debris--nothing whatsoever to indicate that man, or car, or gun or street had ever existed.

Climbing into John's gray Excursion, John and Jen raced from the scene. John drove. Glancing sideways after checking the mirror, he saw that Jen was exhibiting alarming signs of shock. "Are you all right?" he asked, to focus her attention.

No reply.

"Hey--"

Jen began hyperventilating. What the hell was that?" she demanded.