Blurb
an action-adventure story of a Linguist and AI student assigned to save the world from terror. Or from something else.
Back cover text
Quinten takes on a PhD position at Barcelona University when on September 11 a strange sound disrupts his class. Outside above the patio of his Linguistics Faculty, a formation of 9 by 11 drones fills the sky. Lights flash below each drone. Apparently all hold screen that each show signs from all kinds of scripts. He has an assignment from a well-paying mysterious client to upload a picture on Twitter. When he does so he sees a similar post. He feels his heart beating when he sees the time and place. At 9:11 on 9/11 his new friend Alex posted a similar photo from the sky above the neighbouring patio of his Math Faculty, in its turn, however, showing 99 numerical symbols.
Why is there a second drone formation that his mysterious client hadn’t told him about? And what does the guy that he recently became close friends with have to do with all this?
September 11 is not only historic for the 9/11 attacks on US targets in 2001. It’s also the anniversary of Catalan Independence Day. At the same time, 9 blocks from the faculties at Plaça Universitat, La Diada is taking place. The yearly demonstration, prohibited due to Covid19, is however still taking place when media reports about mass amounts of victims at Medical Emergency Units throughout the Catalan capital with an unknown decease.
The mysterious pattern of the drone formation draws the guys to various places throughout 11 locations on earth. In an unexpected cooperation Quinten and Alex need to locate and interrogate terrorists worldwide in a quest that will last 11 consecutive days to stop further attacks. But the terrorists nor their mysterious client are not what they appear to be.
About the writer
Motivation to write this genre
What should I do as an aspiring writer, polyglot, military reservist, swimmer and amateur linguist, adamant of language puzzles, history, national identity, global politics, thriller stories and a peaceful world? Write a language thriller that saves mankind!
I have a background in International Business, European Studies, Big History and Linguistics.
World citizen
As a child I had hundreds of dreams, though merely one ideal.
All my life I have lived, studied and worked with internationals. A mix of dozens of cultures under one roof.
For my startup Interlinguals I have gathered a team of content writers, marketers, graphic designers and web developers from 20 nationalities. Together we created a platform to connect language learners and teachers worldwide.
Motivation to write this story
Differences in (sub)cultures are simply an undeniable fact and irrevocable in today’s globalized world. So we might as well embrace them and find solutions for tensions and better ways to deal with them and each other. In times of economic tension polarization grows:
On the one hand populist leaders emerge by blaming economic tensions on immigrants and the existing world order: foreign nations, conventional government, ‘fake news’ media, science, the legal system and supranational institutions that have been built up after two devastating world wars. The US and UK have been called
On the other hand, a political elite that has been in power in some countries over decades supported by conventional news media outlets
Do the populists have a point? The fact that Trump, Bolsonaro, Johnson, Modi and other world leaders have won the elections should at least indicate to the rest of the people that those voters felt unheard previously. That is more than a concern for democracy and societies as a whole.
While ‘both sides’ appear to be deaf for the ‘other side’ and in a world that the existence of fake news is a fact, where are we heading? The past has shown horrific possible follow-up events. But should conventional politics by definition banish the populist voters? How have votes from ‘the left’ in the US been won by the DOP? Are ‘left-winged’ people so different than ‘right-winged’? Or does our environment determine our opinion and voting behavior?
This book vocalizes both (and more) ‘sides’. The main characters get the difficult task to bring them together. By addressing causes and effects of fake news and fear brought to citizens by some leaders this story propose ways to deal with both. Writing it comes from a desire to share my view on the overall human desire normal of peace and power that regular citizens have on it.
WW II as a present past
As every kid I was taught about World War II and was told some of the horrors by first hand. My grandma had lost her first husband in WW II as he was in the resistance. If he hadn’t lost his life in a work camp she wouldn’t have remarried (to my grandpa) so my mom (and therefore myself) would have never been born. To understand the present I have always been intrigued about the past. However, I had never understood the emergence of national-socialists in Germany and Europe at the time. How could regular citizens have voted for a beast like Hitler? How could civilians not have known about the Holocaust and other war horrors?
2020 The year that the US, UK and UN were more the Divided States, Divided Kingdom and the Divided Nations.
After decades of emerging right-wing populism in France, Italy and my own country, the Netherlands, a majority of citizens in recent EU member states such as Poland and Hungary seemed to have lost their sense to populist parties. At least from a conventional point of view. From Brazil to India, even in France and the long-feared one in Germany, ever more autocratic policy from former more democratic states such as Turkey and Russia populism was on the rise. Having learned much about preludes of wars I had never understood how regular citizens could have not seen the horrors coming. But after the emergence of populism once Trump got elected, Johnson moved to No. 10 and the US and UK as previous strongholds of democracy were never so divided since the Civil War, I realized 2020 might be the year that future generations might ask me about (if we’d survive). But uncle, how come that regular people didn’t know? Didn’t you see it coming?
Fake news is a fact
No-nonsense, enlightening, fraternizing not cheesy, but positive.
Each chapter starts with a fact, a news article, a word or a letter or other symbol from one of the many scripts that exist in the world today or in the past.
View as I type
I’ll be offering an option to watch over my shoulders as I write the story.