110 pages • 3 hours read
Kim Stanley RobinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
A Swiss government security officer recounts the process of moving Mary to a remote town in the Alps. The melting of glaciers is apparent even at this altitude. Mary and the team just miss being killed in a landslide likely engineered to assassinate Mary. The team is forced to move Mary again and to do so rapidly.
Mary’s security team takes her on a grueling trek over a glacier and through a mountain pass. Her journey ends in a secret Swiss air force base, where Mary is shocked to find herself in a meeting with the seven members of the Swiss executive branch (many of whom are former bankers). Mary learns of broad attacks on the UN agencies in Switzerland and the banks. Swiss banks, long used as tax havens for goods and funds stolen from victims of the Holocaust and the ill-gotten gains of criminals and embezzlers from governments, are not functioning because the attack cut off access to the identifying information of these account holders. This in turn is causing an economic panic.
By Kim Stanley Robinson