{"product_id":"the-adjacency-protocol-shaun-smit-9798235291294","title":"The Adjacency Protocol","description":"\u003cp\u003eCIA analyst Maya Zhao and NSA cryptographer Dr. Ethan Cross arrive in Malta for one week of nothing. No brief. No operation. No reason to be watching when a man dies on a harbor terrace on Day Three.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut Maya was sixty feet away. And she saw the four seconds before he fell.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eElias Voss was a financial architect. A quiet man who built shell company chains for people who needed their money to be somewhere it couldn't be traced. He was also nine days into a classified CIA debrief that Maya didn't have the clearance to know about, being run by a case officer she'd never heard of, on an island she'd chosen for her vacation by accident.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe killing mechanism leaves no trace. The local authorities close the case in twenty-two minutes. A stand-down order arrives through legitimate channels, from real authority, faster than the institution can move under normal conditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNone of it is an accident.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSomeone in the highest levels of Maya's own agency knew three things simultaneously: the debrief was running, it was classified above her clearance, and she was on the island. The intersection of those three pieces of knowledge points to one position. One person. A mole operating not against the institution but through it - routing, not fabricating, which is far harder to prove and far more dangerous to expose.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaya and Ethan have no infrastructure, no clearance, and a wall on every official approach. They have each other, a legal pad, and eleven days to build something that can't be suppressed through the same channel that's already trying to stop them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe weapon left no trace. The evidence will have to build itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Adjacency Protocol is Book Four in the Maya Zhao \u0026amp; Ethan Cross Series - a standalone intelligence thriller that deepens the series' central arc.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Shaun Smit\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798235291294\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Shaun Smit\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/02\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 140\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.37lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.33d","brand":"Shaun Smit","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49174268838143,"sku":"9798235291294","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-adjacency-protocol-shaun-smit-9798235291294","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}