The Dot.Com Terrorist

By Ted Haynes

jeff hanley, 32, is reeling from the failure of quickrabbit, a san francisco dotcom company where he was the vp of software. his dedication to the company has caused jeff's chinese-american wife, cheri, to divorce him and keep jeff's two sons away from him. quickrabbit's failure has left jeff with a large and inescapable debt to the irs.

jeff's leap off the golden gate bridge is aborted by achmed fandy, who attempts to recruit jeff for a terrorist suicide mission. achmed introduces jeff to khalid, an arabic graduate student dedicated to saving muslims from western influence. jeff declines to participate but suggests that khalid could do more damage, and publicize his organization's message by launching a worm (virus) on the internet. jeff is impressed by khalid's discipline and sense of purpose and decides to find out more about him.

jeff negotiates a deal with the terrorists whereby they will kill eric, the venture capitalist who led jeff into quickrabbit, and give jeff $100,000 in cash. eric is pushed out of his office window by an arabic-looking stranger.

jeff delivers the “jihad” computer virus to the terrorists and mails the cash they give him to cheri. driving the suicide van the next day, jeff snatches the remote detonator and blows up aAchmed and khalid far away from their intended target. jeff must now evade both the terrorists and the fbi. realizing the terrorists may take revenge on cheri, jeff convinces her to visit her wealthy cousin raymond in hong kong.
jeff is now recruited to join a new startup that may put him on a new financial footing. he learns the man who pushed eric out a window was a disgruntled employee and had no connection to the terrorists. some parts of jeff's life are looking up.

but jeff is suddenly kidnapped by men he believes to be the terrorist group. he learns that they are criminals who planned to use the explosion to cover a smuggling operation. khalid, a dedicated radical islamist, never knew about this. but now the smugglers want the $100,000 back that they channeled to jeff. they threaten to kill him and are just about to do so when the entire gang is massacred by a rival group.
the fbi contacts jeff without revealing how they found him. they report that all members of the terrorist group have left the country. they have no reason to detain jeff because he has told them everything he knows and, to many people, he would be a hero for preventing the death and destruction that would have resulted from the bomb exploding at the target. jeff is now able to call hong kong and tell cheri she can come home. he is anticipating a reconciliation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ted Haynes
• Release date: Jul 14, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476493947

Ted Haynes

Ted Haynes is the author of The Dot.com Terrorist, a novel, and co-author of Vandevert – The Hundred Year History of a Central Oregon Ranch. He studied fiction writing at Dartmouth College, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University. Ted and his wife first visited Central Oregon in 1975 and have loved it ever since. They now spend every summer on the Little Deschutes River.

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