The Third Instinct

A high-octane thriller that sets Dan Clifford against ancient secret societies vying for power in the modern world; in the vein of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series.
 
In The Third Instinct, author Kent Lester brings his signature blend of cutting-edge science, history, and pulse-pounding action to the next Dan Clifford adventure. A shadowy group of bio-hackers called the Firemen have been detected by the FBI and are threatening to release more dangerous pathogens. What’s driving the Firemen’s motivations and how is it related to the fall of the Roman Empire?
 
The answers may lie with prediction scientist Dan Clifford. Unemployed and struggling with two years of pandemic isolation, he is rebuilding his career and personal life. He plans to propose to his adrenaline-junkie girlfriend, Rachel Sullivan, but is interrupted by a visit from the FBI.

Dan must connect a maze of clues from the shadowy underworld of Savannah's hacker community, to the ancient powerbrokers of Rome and in doing so, uncover a hidden agenda of big Pharma and a two-thousand-year-old battle for control of public opinion.  Truth or lies—success or failure—survival or death: all may depend on the third basic human instinct.