Kind of a hard book to get started. I couldn’t exactly figure out who the main character was or what he was supposed to do. Turns out he’s got a unique job that has nothing to do with the other characters in the story other than he gets them to work together. See, James Hamilton is a government negotiator although I don’t think it was ever clearly stated who he actually worked for. His current assignment requires him to negotiate a return of the Son a prominent Kenyan industrialist, I.e, a very wealth man. He’s successful at what he does and got the Son released unharmed.
The release of the Son and James himself costs a lot of money. Apparently, not all of it goes towards the release of the hostage(s). James is known to keep a good portion of the money for himself. I mean, he does put his life on the line so the thinks he should be compensated more than what the government salary would do. This kind of compensation never shows up on the books, but certain people know and as long as he does the job required, no one is going to raise a stink.
Right now, James wants to reconcile with his former girl friend. Joana was the daughter of a very wealthy businessman who had supposedly committed suicide because of James’ business deals. The true story hadn’t ever been told to her since her father wanted it that way so James lost the love of his life and didn’t care whether he survived any of these hostile negotiations, so that was part of the reason for his great success. But, just as he was about to have some time alone with Joana, he was violently kidnapped by the US Army in a helicopter. They came right to a balcony room in the Kenyan city where he was celebrating the return of the Son. Someone was definitely tracking James’ whereabouts.
You’ll soon meet a Major Timothy Norton, US Army. He’s the guy that kidnapped James and took him eventually to F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. This is the home of the US Missile Command, the same place that holds or did hold hundreds if not thousands of US ballistic missiles. Now one of those missile silos had been cleaned out and repurposed for something so fantastic that James could hardly believe possible. He was soon to meet several scientists, six in fact, that were already at the site. He was soon to find out that this was a joint venture with American, Russian, and European Union scientists. James was no scientist so he was confused as to why he had to be here. Here was project “Hyperion”, a secret project that was so secret James had to sign some 200 pages of a Non-disclosure Agreement before he ever got to Wyoming.
Now about project Hyperion. Not long ago an oil drilling vessel had been moving into place in Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. This lake and area was known for frequent lightening storms and that was happening when the drillship was placed in the lake. Something deep beneath the lake was hit by lightening and it resulted in a huge magnetic charge being sent up and to the drillship. The drillship was simply crushed into a small ball. That had brought diggers to the lake and they had found something that had been at the bottom of the lake for something like four hundred thousand years! This object was oval in shape and black as black could be. It had been brought to Wyoming and now resided in the former missile silo. The scientific group was charged with finding out what his object was and where it came from. They all had their own opinions, some very strong, and weren’t progressing very far or very fast. James was brought in to do his thing, which was to get these scientists to start working together and get something done. James had no idea how he was going to accomplish this or even if he should try.
So, that’s the story-line. Someone or something has to figure out what this strange black ovoid object is. It is very big and they have already found out that you can get inside of it. They even had a gantry walk-way up to the apparent opening, and inside they found seats. But what was this for? That was the big question.
There is some scientific stuff going on in the story, but it’s not overwhelming and sounds plausible. I just don’t really see James’ purpose and am surprised the scientists even talked to him much considering he wasn’t a scientist of any kind. The story does progress pretty quickly and you’re left at the end with certainly more story to go although I don’t know where the story is going to lead. Maybe we’ll find more in the next book simply titled “[Teleport 2](https://amzn.to/3tnxzDG)”, now available on Amazon.