A techno-thriller duology by S.P. Mercer
A CIA officer sees a Chinese general in Athens—while every intelligence system on Earth proves the man is in Beijing. Two realities. One missing source. And a war built from facts no one can trust.
THE THINGS WE KNOW / THE THINGS WE BELIEVETHE ZERO SOURCE DUOLOGY
Across fifty-two chapters and two connected novels, Zero Source follows veteran CIA officer Nick Alexiou through a geopolitical crisis where evidence can be genuine, systems can be correct, and the conclusion can still be catastrophically wrong.
From Athens and Beijing to NATO command rooms, hidden archives, and the machinery beneath modern intelligence, the duology asks one terrifying question: when our institutions can no longer agree on what is real, who gets to choose what we believe?
THE COMPLETE DUOLOGY
BOOK ONE ZERO SOURCE
An impossible sighting. A seven-minute discrepancy. A global crisis engineered from the truth.
CIA officer Nick Alexiou walks into an Athens restaurant and sees General Zhao Jianyu—a man every classified system proves is in Beijing. Then the records begin to multiply. Each is authentic. Together, they describe two incompatible realities.
Buy on Amazon ↗BOOK TWO ZERO SOURCE
The evidence was real. The source was not. Now belief itself has become the battlefield.
The first crisis exposed a system that could manufacture certainty. The second reveals something older: an abandoned experiment, an archive that should be impossible, and a pattern that may have been shaping decisions for decades.
Buy on Amazon ↗INSIDE THE SIGNAL
General Zhao is eating grilled octopus in Athens. Satellite imagery, secure communications, and facial recognition place him in Beijing.
The data is not fake. The records are not forged. The danger lies in how authentic evidence is selected, connected, and believed.
ORPHEUS predicts. ARGUS challenges. Somewhere between them, another process decides when institutions should doubt—and when they should act.
“There are two reliable ways to know you’re getting old.”
THE OPENING LINE · BOOK ONETHE COMPLETE STORY IS AVAILABLE NOW