This novel, written by Chase Brandon, a former CIA operative, is a conspiracy thriller. As such, it does a great job of keeping the reader in suspense.

There are a lot of components included in the story which I wonder about. Sure, we have all heard of underground bunkers to keep the President and other government officials safe in the event of a national crisis. But underground train links between Washington D. C. and New York? Does the sculpture outside the CIA headquarters contain a cryptic code message? I suspect there is truth to these things; I wonder about the detail. How much literary licence did he use?

Written by a former CIA guy lends an air of credibility to the story, which covers a sweep of history from the entire 20th century up till about 2055. It deals with secrecy around UFO’s and contact with ET’s. The words in the title are names of certain projects undertaken to safeguard the U.S. Ultra-top-secret files open to very few contain information crucial to the future of the country and the planet. But as conspiracy theorists have long surmised, this information is kept secret in the belief that open dissemination would lead to panic and social collapse.

There are elements of the supernatural included in this story. The main character seems to be specially chosen by spiritual forces to bring about certain policies and projects ensuring the survival of the human race. The story includes brief glimpses into the spiritual dimension as heavenly beings oversee this planet and its inhabitants. There is spiritual warfare involved, as two ET races conflict and collide with each other. But the story centers mostly on U.S. power brokers, a select few knowing what is really going on, with the rest just doing the best they can with their limited information.

One aspect of the story I really appreciated is that it portrays these heavenly forces, at least the “good” ones, as attempting to support and foster the nobility of the human race. That seems to be their objective. When humans reach out to each other in compassion and brotherhood, this is what they look for and encourage.

But the overall portrayal of our future is rather bleak. I am sure it is realistic from the author’s perspective. And being who he is, he should know. I find myself not totally agreeing with his perspective, being considerably more hopeful and optimistic than he sounds in his book. But it is certainly worth a read. It is a spell-binding tale, well-written. I found it difficult to put down at times.