Black Swan: Books 1 thru 3 - Bobby Akart

Written by Bobby Akart
Read by Andrew Wehrlen
Format: M4B

It began as a distant spark on a spaceraft’s telescope.
It became the most closely watched object in human history.
Then it suddenly changed course— and turned toward Earth.
When astronomers detect an interstellar comet entering the solar system, the world rejoices at the once-in-a-lifetime discovery. Designated Comet 4I/SWAN, the object appears to be nothing more than a cosmic wanderer passing through on its way back to the stars. But within days, the data shifts and the anomalies pile up. The object accelerates without cause. It alters its trajectory. It emits strange bursts of energy no comet has ever produced.

Publicly, officials insist there is nothing unusual.
Privately, scientists begin to panic.

At Caltech, Emily Pickett, a fiercely driven planetary researcher, is the first to see a pattern emerging—one that suggests the comet may not be behaving naturally. Her mentor, the provocative and controversial Professor Johan Xavier, known as Professor X, has staked his entire reputation on a theory that interstellar comets might actually be alien technology. Emily has resisted his theories for years… until now.

At NASA, Emily’s brother Daniel Pickett works on a classified program known only as Project Preserve Destiny—a black-ops division buried inside the Department of War. His latest assignment is to analyze 4I/SWAN’s impossible anomalies and keep the truth out of public view. Bound by nondisclosure orders and shadowed by CIA handlers, Daniel struggles with the growing evidence no one wants to acknowledge: 4I/SWAN may be engineered and powerful forces will do anything to bury the truth.

As the comet approaches the Sun, the society begins to fracture. Social media explodes with conspiracy theories. Markets plunge. Governments impose new layers of secrecy. Every new observation raises more questions, not answers. Scientists whisper about micro-maneuvers, unexplained signals, impossible outgassing rates. But the most disturbing anomaly appears after perihelion—when the object slingshots around the Sun and makes a sudden, violent shift toward the inner planets. Directly onto a path that intersects Earth’s orbit.

In Liberty County, Texas, Sheriff Bud Pickett watches the panic spread from the big cities to his own quiet community. Once a respected deputy chief in adjacent Harris County, Bud returned home to raise his family after the death of his wife, believing rural life would bring stability. But as his children become entangled with the truth behind 4I/SWAN, Bud finds himself caught between a frightened public, a collapsing society, and a government growing more desperate by the hour.
When Emily and Daniel become targets of the very agencies sworn to protect the nation, Bud is forced into a role he never expected: protector not just of a county on the brink including his children, but of the truth itself.

Because whatever 4I/SWAN is, it’s getting closer.
And the real danger may not be its impact but what arrives with it.

From international bestselling author Bobby Akart comes a sweeping new technothriller where science, secrecy, and survival collide.