Blackout

In modern times, organizing a global terrorist attack isn’t just easy—it’s very easy. You don’t need to get a nuclear warhead for huge money. You don’t need to hijack airplanes and steer them into skyscrapers. You don’t need to take hostages. Just disrupt the power supply in a region—and you’ll see what happens. Although it would be better not to see it…

On a cold February day, electricity suddenly goes out across Europe—and life literally comes to a standstill. Then panic begins. Because people are completely dependent on electricity. Within a week, Europe is thrown back into the Stone Age, and its enlightened population rapidly loses its human face as it struggles to survive…

Italian programmer and former hacker Piero Manzano finds the cause of the blackout: a strange and very effective viral code has been embedded into the power plant equipment. Piero contacts Europol, but they don’t believe him. And when, in Manzano’s email, they “accidentally” find very unambiguous correspondence, they put him under harsh scrutiny, considering him one of the terrorists who caused the blackout…