The Midas Protocol
- Details
- The Midas Files
In 1983, brilliant Unalco researcher Dr. Lawrence Bingham and his wife are murdered, and Bingham’s greatest...
Caroline Friday’s elective becomes the doorway into the Bingham murder investigation. Her question about the death penalty wins Bill Murdock’s attention; her choice of Rusty Gibb’s case brings her into the mystery that will shape her future.
Jack converts the previous chapter’s humiliation into deliberate retaliation. His injuries make him ridiculous and physically vulnerable, but they do not soften his behavior. He interprets Hank’s intervention at the Rosebud as a personal outrage and looks for a way to make Hank pay. The stolen equipment and keyed door turn grievance into action.
Addison’s viewpoint complicates the romance. She admires Hank’s looks, professional promise, humor, and willingness to defend Danielle. She also treats his apartment and habits as things she might improve. Her attraction carries an expectation that he will change to suit her, a useful tension beneath the playful exchanges.
Rodney Pierpont Barons, Jack desperately wants to escape his father’s shadow—even as he inherits much of Rod’s aggression, entitlement and instinct for power. His ingenious manipulation of Unalco’s finances quickly attracts Connor Wallrose, who recognizes that Jack’s creative accounting could conceal enormous losses while preserving the appearance of corporate success. For Jack, Connor offers the influence and approval his father never did.
At 2:37 a.m. on January 1, 1990, Hank Raglan welcomes Addison Moore into his Ben Avon apartment. After the Rosebud brawl, the warmth offers refuge; the dirty laundry, battered furniture, and improvised shelving offer a less flattering introduction to Hank’s private life. Addison is appalled and attracted in almost the same breath. His defense of Danielle has strengthened her interest, even as his housekeeping tests it.
When Danielle confronts him, the argument becomes violent. Jack strikes her in full view of the party. Hank immediately answers with a punch of his own, and Jack’s attempt to retaliate ignites a sprawling club-wide brawl. The sequence moves from ugly domestic cruelty to farce and pandemonium: overturned food, flying chairs, shattered glasses, accidental punches, and a charge through a flimsy wall into the men’s room.
“Book Lovers” begins with Hank trying to decide how to spend a New Year’s weekend he does not particularly want to spend at a party. He considers Seven Springs with Sam Friday, a neighborhood bar for the Steelers playoff game, his brother Jeremy’s keg party, or simply a Blockbuster video and a six-pack. Instead, he wanders into a downtown Waldenbooks looking for a Dean Koontz novel and a quiet way to pass the time.
Caroline Friday is twenty-one years old in December 1989 and lives with her family in Pittsburgh’s North Hills. She comes from a relatively comfortable upbringing, but she is broke, directionless, and determined to prove that she can build a life without relying on her father or the expanding family restaurant business.
Hank Raglan is a 24-year-old materials engineer from West View, a working-class suburb north of Pittsburgh. The year is 1989.
Step into The Midas Files, a techno-thriller series where quantum mystery, ancient power, corporate ambition, and otherworldly secrets collide. Start the journey with The Midas Protocol: Midas Files Book One by Matt De Reno.
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In 1983, brilliant Unalco researcher Dr. Lawrence Bingham and his wife are murdered, and Bingham’s greatest...
The Gold Box was only the beginning.
Ten years after the events of The Midas Protocol, Hank Raglan...
The labyrinth has opened.
Hank Raglan has survived the impossible, but survival has come at a...
The Gold Box was only the beginning.
More than ten years after the events of The Midas Protocol, the...