Zero Day by S. Hussain Zaidi

Zero Day by S. Hussain Zaidi is a fictitious spy-political drama weaved around cyberterrorism, hawala transactions involving the angadia system, and cross-border infiltration, with an account of child pornography. It’s the third book of the trio: Mirza, Vikrant, and Shaina. The earlier books are ‘The Eleventh Hour’ and ‘The Endgame.’

Title of the Book

The title of the book, Zero Day, is taken from a computer-software vulnerability, known as zero-day. Zero-day is a broad term that describes recently discovered security vulnerabilities that hackers can use to attack systems. The words vulnerability, exploit, and attack are typically used alongside zero-day. It’s called zero-day because the vulnerability remains unknown to the person interested in mitigating it until exposed or exploited by someone, leaving zero days to mitigate it.

About the Author

S. Hussain Zaidi is a former investigative journalist and a noted author in crime genre with expertise in the Mumbai mafia. His in-depth research has been used by others, like Misha Glenny in McMafia & Vikram Chandra in his book Sacred Games.

Zaidi writes both non-fiction & fiction. Several movies are made on his books, such as Black Friday, Shootout at Wadala, Phantom, Class of 83, & Gangubai Kathiawadi.

He has also written screenplays for movies London Confidential & Lahore Confidential.

Characters in Zero Day

Shahwaz Ali Mirza

Shahwaz Ali Mirza in Zero Day is an Additional Director General of Police, a veteran of intelligence & espionage postings, who has recently taken over as the head of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) after years of experience in agencies like the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Vikrant Singh

Vikrant Singh in Zero Day is an Inspector General of Police, who is in charge of the Maharashtra State Police’s Cybercrime Cell. According to ‘The Eleventh Hour,’ during the 26/11 Mumbai attack, he was a Superintendent of Police from the Maharashtra cadre, posted as Deputy Commissioner of Police with the Anti-Terrorism Squad. During the series, he worked with IB, NIA, & RAW on various ranks.

Shaina Verma

Shaina Verma in Zero Day is a Major with the National Security Guard, a fearsome hand-to-hand combatant & a skilled sniper with a string of kills to her name. In ‘The Eleventh Hour,’ she is described as a petite young woman with raven-black hair and almond-shaped brown eyes.

Madan Shukla

Madan Shukla is a career Military Intelligence officer and had worked with Mirza and Vikrant in the past. Shukla & Mirza go way back. Shukla said to Vikrant in ‘The Endgame’ that he worked with Mirza in Kashmir when Mirza was young & he was younger.

Samir Deo

Samar Deo is a Superintendent of Police with the Cybercrime Cell. With his hands-on approach, seemingly limitless enthusiasm, & tech-savviness, he was fast becoming Vikant’s go-to person in the agency.

Anirudh Kumar Jain

Anirudh Kumar Jain is Director General of Police (DGP), Maharashtra, who is always eager to establish himself as the smartest person in the room. He also worked with RAW like Mirza & Vikrant but earned the reputation of being thoroughly unscrupulous and dangerous, not hesitating to throw his teammates under the bus if it came to that. This is why Mirza used all his favours with his seniors to ensure that he never had to work with him together.

Karthik Vijayan

Karthik Vijayan is a Deputy Commissioner of Police with the Mumbai Crime Branch. He is appointed by DGP as his eyes & ear in the team Mirza.

Dhananjay More

Dhananjay More is a Police Sub Inspector with the Mumbai Central Railway Police Station, fresh out of probation with his first posting.

Muntaqim

Muntaqim is a username on a dark web chat forum, which takes the responsibility for the cyberattack on the Mumbai Traffic Signal Network and has been preparing to bring the Indian government to its knees by exploiting the zero-day vulnerability in the government’s system. Muntaqim in Urdu means avenger.

Plot of Zero Day                                                              

Zero Day has three subplots along with the main plot. The main plot deals with cyberterrorism. One subplot deals with online child pornography. Another subplot deals with hawala transactions involving the angadia system. And the other one deals with cross-border infiltration.

The main plot begins with the complete breakdown of the Mumbai Traffic Signal Network. Mirza receives an email from someone who takes responsibility for the breakdown claiming it to be a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, and warns to do more attacks soon. A crack team was constituted with Mirza as head and Vikrant, Deo, Vijayan, & Shaina as team members.

In one subplot, Shaina is working undercover as an assistant director doing background research for an upcoming movie. She is on loan to Military Intelligence as part of a special operation to crack down on infiltration into India through the Pathankot border after an intel of a tunnel being dug for the purpose.

In another subplot, More is doing a routine work of setting up a checkpoint at the Mumbai Central Railway Station to stop & search the belongings of random passengers. When he signals a person, the person hefts the bag on his shoulder a little higher, turns on his heel and starts running as fast as his legs could carry him. On chasing, the person jumped in front of a running train.  

Style of Writing in Zero Day

The novel starts with the subplot of child pornography whose only purpose is to set the stage for the main plot by introducing the characters through action-packed scenes, and it’s nicely done. The intertwining of subplots with the main plot is smooth & seamless.  

The chapters are kept short & often end with a cliffhanger to arouse readers’ curiosity & tempt them for binge-reading. The principle of Chekhov’s gun is strictly followed.

The narration is tight & crisp with only necessary detailing. The language is simple.

Topics Dealt in Zero Day

• Merits & demerits of social media.
• Cause of traffic jam, especially the role of two-wheelers.
• Pros of banning two-wheelers on the flyover.
• Slow recovery of Indian Economy.
• Positive & negative sides of news media.
• Phishing emails, malware, dark web, botnet, DDoS attack, zero-day vulnerabilities, cyberterrorism.
• Working of bureaucracy.
• Courier services of angadia.
• Misuse of photoshop.
• Different kinds of politics such as party politics, workplace politics, international politics, vote politics, etc.
• Importance of Informants & The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) for effective policing.
• Interconnection of different intelligence agencies.
• Interlinking of drug nexus & cross-border infiltration.

Drawbacks of Zero Day

The book is poor in conflict. It not only lacks escalation of conflict but also different types of conflicts. The same DDoS attack with a botnet is used again & again. Also, the conflicts are resolved easily without much difficulty, to the extent that makes the villains look fools.

Only a smart villain makes a smart hero.  A dumb villain cannot make an intelligent hero. The antagonistic forces are weak in Zero Day.

The female protagonist is underused. She is used as a story prop instead of a human being. Cuss words on lips and casual sex don’t make a woman progressive. The way she is treated in the story shows the patriarchal mindset. Except for ‘The Endgame’ none of the books in the series does justice to the character of Shaina Verma.   

Quotable Quotes in Zero Day

• Nothing beat good old human intelligence.
• Social media is an invention that could be as good, or as bad, as the person using it.
• Grief coupled with anger never leads to desirable consequences.
• The worst mistakes are made in moments of anger.
• A war of wits that we will win only if we control the narrative.
• Give him a podium to speak from and he suddenly becomes a hero. Deny him that and he’s only a madman with a computer.

I received the review copy from HarperCollins through Blogchatter Book Review Program.