90 Seconds to Midnight

'90 seconds to midnight' is the first book in a series of novels. The Prologue sets the scene at 24 January 2023, when the Science and Security Board (SSB) of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) adjusted the Doomsday Clock to '90 seconds to midnight': its closest it had ever been to a predicted global catastrophe, since its inception in 1947. Midnight is the predicted time of Doomsday: annihilation of the planet. The main protagonist is Joe Clifford, who graduated in 2017 with a BSC Economics (Honours) from The London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. He had been headhunted in his last year at university by a recruiter from MI5, the UK’s Security Service, under a graduate induction program. '90 seconds to midnight' chronicles his induction and initial training at MI5 and his first post as an internal intelligence officer. He is fast tracked after three months and undergoes extensive training in preparation for his detachment as an active field agent in the Counter-Espionage division of MI5. The book concludes with his first case as a field agent where he plays an integral part in investigating a perceived Chinese attempt to commit cyber warfare. These books are fictional, although they do at times refer to real life people, places and occurrences, for authenticity.