The Broker

Title : The Broker
Author : John Grisham

The narrative started in January 1996, with 3 young Pakistani computer scientist -Fazal, Safi and Farooq- hired by the Pakistani military to locate, access and monitor the surveillance system of a new Indian spy satellite hovering 300 miles above the Pakistani ground.

In just a short time, they were able to determine it to be just another one of the ordinary surveillance system not unlike their own, that has been doing nothing more than snapping photographs of unimportant stuff to be broadcasted to the Indian government.

However, during the course of their work, they accidentally stumbled across another suspicious surveillance system unlike any they've seen so far. It was of the best technology the world have yet to see. After secretly tapping into the system, they were able to locate the network of 9 satellites linking to one another, which made up the most sophisticated surveillance system they've ever come across- code-named as Neptune. Being the computer whiz they were, the 3 young Pakistanis were soon able not only to monitor it's activities but also to manipulate the system and jammed the rest of the applications related to it. Of course, these were done by them writing a new home-brewed software that take total control of the network of the surveillance system. The software were code-named JAM.

After silently contemplating what they could do and make with the newly developed software, Fazal and Safi got greedy and wanted to make money by selling it to the highest bidder. Farooq wanted nothing to do with it, suggesting that they should just hand it over to the military and wash their hands off it before trouble starts. But the other two wouldn't hear any of it. A bitter fight erupted. Thus, began their fatal venture into the world of the greedy...

In September 1998, both of them travelled to Washington and from there they met with The Broker (Joel Backman) who was known as the man who could open any doors in Washington.
He was just the right man to help them market JAM to the various interested government.

Eventually, after much aggravation, a deal was struck with the Saudi government. The Saudi paid a transaction fee of a million upfront, and the rest of the $100 million will be wired to their newly opened account in Zurich.

Then all hell break loose.

The feds attacked with warrants, indictments, investigations and the Saudis got spooked. Some people got murdered inthe process. Joel himself fled to teh safety of federal prison, leaving behind some very angry people with serious grudges.

However, after spending only a short 6 months hidden away i federal prison, he suddenly found himself being hauled away outta prison by a controversial presidential last-minute pardon. What very few people know is that the pardon was granted only after the president received enormous pressure from the CIA, due to some unknown reason.

Minutes after the pardon, Backman was quietly smuggled out of the country to Italy, living under new name, new identity and a new life. What he didn't know was that the CIA has plan to leak his whereabout to the people holding grudged against him- the Israelis, the Saudis, the Russians and the Chinese. Then CIA will do what it does best, sit back and watch. The question they needed answered is who will kill him in order to solve the mystery of the Neptune and JAM.

Well, basically that's what the stroy is all about. As Grisham's die-hard fan, i still gotta admit that it's just not as interesting as his earlier writings. Not really a page-turner, this one. I guess i was still hoping for some courtroom brawl to spice up the story (that's what he's good at actually, the courtroom scene ). But still it made a good leisure read in bed over the weekend.

As for the rating, i'd give it 5 out of 10. And that's coming from a Grisham's die-hard fan. So...hmmm, go figure.