Trade Secrets by Douglas

About the book

When critical trade secrets are stolen from Mentor Genetics, a small biotech firm in Silicon Valley, Gina Stasov finds herself drawn into a deeply personal and increasingly violent conflict over control of the company. On one side is Oliver Thorn, the powerful and ruthless venture capitalist who has provided financial backing for Mentor. He urges Gina to use her skills in marketing and public relations to calm speculation over the company's declining fortunes. Opposing him is an old rival, Carla MacAllister, now spearheading a hostile takeover bid from a multinational conglomerate. She promises Gina an executive position in the reorganized firm, in return for helping make the takeover successful.

The conflict also brings Gina into close contact with Dr. Matt Colby, the scientist whose trade secrets have been stolen. It's not an easy match. She's a Russian-Italian girl from San Francisco's North Beach district, who uses martial arts training as a way of keeping her Slavic-Latin temper under control. He's a rancher's son from western Nebraska, whose dedication to genetically engineering new crops has left little time for social life.

Action shifts quickly from the brutal murder of an aging professor Gina has just visited in Saint Petersburg to an escalating series of attacks directed at her. A camping trip with Matt in the mountains above Silicon Valley is interrupted by thugs hired to retrieve incriminating evidence. They escape with the help of a reclusive pot grower. The pace accelerates with a chase through the Moscow subway system and the laying of a trap from which only Matt's scientific expertise can help them escape.

Shortly after Matt's archrival, Victor Huffington, is revealed as the thief of the trade secrets, he too is murdered, with suspicion initially falling on Oliver Thorn. Accumulating clues eventually point toward Carla MacAllister as Victor's spymaster and murderer, but there is not yet enough evidence to arrest her. Gina cooperates with the police, who wire her to obtain more information from Carla, including her involvement with events in Russia. She detects the trap, however, and threatens to kill Gina. Matt intervenes and, knowing that the police are closing in, Carla kills Oliver and herself. In the aftermath, Gina accepts Matt's halting proposal of marriage.