Cobalt Blue (novel)

Cobalt Blue
Released	02 August 2022
Published	Pan Macmillan
Page no.	216
ISBN	9781761261671

Cobalt Blue is the eighteenth novel written by Matthew Reilly. The story features Cassie Cassowitz - aka the eponymous Cobalt Blue - as the main protagonist as she steps up to become the superhero America needs.

Synopsis

For 35 years, the United States and Russia each had their own superhero.

Three days ago, America's hero died.

Today will be bad.

In the face of an overwhelming attack, one young woman-unassuming and anonymous-might be America's only hope.

Her codename ... COBALT BLUE

Summary

Note: events that take place out of chronology with the primary narrative are in italics.

35 years ago, during the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, the United States and Russia attempted to ease the old tensions by collaborating on a space mission to study the atmosphere of Venus. Upon the probe's landing in the Arctic, an American science team and a Russian special forces unit were sent to retrieve its samples. However, a tiny organism from Venus's atmosphere that had become attached to the probe abruptly burst and released a strange gas into the faces of Dr. Christine Cobalt and Sergeant Nikolai Furin, rendering them both comatose for a few months. After they had awoken, both found that they had developed superhuman powers, such as enhanced strength, senses and even the ability to fly.

Both Dr. Cobalt and Sergeant Furin found that they were evenly matched, and while the former was selfless, working to understand her powers and defend peoples' lives when they needed her, Furin was tyrannical, viscously reclaiming the old Soviet republics and taking whatever he desired, earning the moniker the Fury of Russia. Soon the U.S. and Russia sought to create a new generation of these superhumans, with Cobalt donating some of her eggs to be artificially inseminated and brought to term through surrogacy, while Furin merely mated with the thousands of volunteers to try to produce a child. Despite some difficulty, both programs worked, with Furin having six sons, while five boys and two girls were produced from Cobalt's eggs. To much surprise, Cobalt also became pregnant to her husband, giving birth to a young girl, Cassie, although her parents elected to keep her identity a secret from the public.

As these children grew up, it became clear that all of these offspring had only half of the strength of their respective superhuman parents. While the Fury's sons were conscripted into the military, Cobalt raised all of hers with her husband (albeit under constant guard) and had them attend public schools. Upon reaching adulthood, the eldest seven were allowed to choose their futures and places of residence, with most becoming heroes to their adopted cities. Cassie, meanwhile, preferred to remain anonymous to the public.

While an uneasy truce was held between America and Russian thanks to the presence of their respective superheroes, Cobalt and the Fury of Russia remained rivals for many years. Yet in spite of their great abilities, both continued to age as normal humans do, and Cobalt, already older than the Fury by two decades, eventually passes away at age 79. As soon as she passes, the Fury - no longer possessing an equal to oppose him - announces that he will soon begin a campaign of destruction against the U.S. and to eliminate Cobalt's children.

The day after Cobalt's funeral, the Fury arrives over Washington, D.C. to begin his campaign. Cassie, now aged 29 and working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Los Angeles, watches the television broadcast as her eldest brother, Greg, aka Cobalt Green, steps forward to take on the Fury. Having served proudly in the United States Army, Cobalt Green might seem to the one to end the Fury's campaign before it begins, but alas he is swiftly defeated and decapitated. As the Fury practically demolishes the Pentagon before flying off to his next destination, the horrified Cassie and her husband Trey Cassowitz decide to return home.

The Fury of Russia arrives in New York City and calls out the resident heroes, twins Paul and Winnie - Cobalts Purple and White respectively. The twins are master martial artists, having honed their skills protecting New York while sidelining as models and DJs, and meet the Fury in battle. While their skills and speed initially allow them to outpace the bigger and bulkier Fury, sadly it isn't enough, and soon Purple has his face punched in and White her neck broken before being stabbed through with a traffic pole. The news reaches Cassie as she and Trey return home, and when Trey wonders what the Fury wants exactly, Cassie reveals that her mother had told her on her deathbed.

Two weeks earlier, Cobalt informed Cassie that the psychopathic Fury wants to tear down everything America stands for, humiliate and kill its leaders, and something else she had warned Cassie about after a summit in Paris. Cobalt knows that no one will be able to stop Furin after she dies, even her children since they are only half as strong as him. However, she revealed to Cassie that he has the same weakness as herself; their muscles, bones and organs may be stronger than normal, but as her declining health has proven, their superhuman feats take a heavy toll. Cobalt then tried to encourage Cassie to consider being a hero like her siblings, and while Cassie has always disliked the idea of being idolised and in the spotlight, Cobalt believed her daughter has the right mix of brains, strength and foresight necessary to stop the Fury.

Cassie receives a call from Reggie, aka Cobalt Red, who warns that the Fury is heading towards him in Chicago, and will likely continue on his west-bound course until he reaches her. Having just been ordered by the mayor to leave Chicago in spite of his 12 years serving the city as a police officer, Red confesses that while he had enjoyed some of the limelight, being rejected by the people he's protected has allowed him to understand why Cassie chose to remain anonymous and go into Witness Protection. With the Fury nearing, Red apologises to Cassie and sets out to confront the Fury over the lake. However his brawl with Fury of Russia goes no better than his siblings', and after Cobalt Red is killed, the Fury acknowledges his fighting spirit before going on to decimate Chicago.

Disheartened by the news of Red's defeat, Cassie laments that now only she and three of her siblings remain. Trey asks about her brother Blaine / Cobalt Black. In addition to having to the same, if slightly inferior, powers as his siblings, Black also happens to have a "supercharged" brain, making him extraordinarily intelligent yet-also emotionally handicapped, which is why he is kept at a lab in a military testing facility at Groom Lake. A year earlier, Cassie and her parents were invited by Black to his lab, wanting to discuss plans to handle the Fury when Cobalt inevitably dies. Black was certain that their only option would be to lure the Fury to a major city and detonate 10 nuclear warheads at once, though Cassie and Cobalt vehemently opposed the idea since it would sacrifice millions of civilians. Cassie questioned Black's coldness, to which he responded that his idea is simple mathematics, and without their mother to deter the Fury, he will simply be an unstoppable force. Trey scoffs when Cassie relays this, and reminds her that she and her father beat two of the Fury's sons before.

10 years ago, Cassie and Arnold were alone at the family home in Texas when two of the Fury's sons, the Fury of Odessa and the Fury of Kazan, broke into the house. Odessa and Kazan admitted that their government's agencies have little intel on Cassie, and their intent to gift both her and Arnold's heads to their father. Despite an attempt at fleeing, Kazan managed to snatch Arnold from Cassie and broke his spine with a single punch, crippling him. Before the brothers could move in on Cassie, Cobalt returned home and swiftly killed the two Furies, later having their severed heads delivered to the Russian embassy in Washington. This incident prompted the family's relocation to a new home in Montana.

As Cassie points out to Trey, she and her father didn't beat Kazan and Odessa - they just survived until her mother arrived, and that Cobalt was furious with the Russian brood, especially after another incident that took place on a cruise ship. Trey is confused; he is aware that Cobalt and Cobalt Green saved the passengers of the sinking Caribbean Star, but as Cassie reveals, the sinking was orchestrated by the Fury of Moscow to cover up the assassination of a former Secretary of Defense.

Eight years ago, a peace summit took place in Paris in order to try to quell the tensions, which Cobalt attended with the Secretary of State Elizabeth Halderman and the Fury with Anatoly Argentov, a KGB spy posing as a senior minister but in fact Russia's lead expert on Cobalt. While the other three argued about the previous incidents, the Fury eventually spoke up and asked to speak to Cobalt alone. During their discussion, Cobalt rejected the Fury's proposal to mate and create a new race of superhumans to rule like gods. After insulting one another, the Fury threatened to take all of Cobalt's daughters as his concubines after her eventual demise. Thoroughly disgusted, Cobalt warned Cassie and had her pending transition through Witness Protection expedited.

At this moment, U.S. Marshal Connie-Anne Walters, Cassie's case officer in WITSEC, calls to check in on her. Walters informs Cassie that Argentov, who has been imprisoned in the U.S. for the last year, wants to speak with her. Having nothing else to lose, Cassie agrees, and she and Trey head to the L.A. Federal Building. Immediately after hanging up, Walters' office building is infiltrated by the Fury of Russia, who knows Walters is the case officer for Cobalt's secret daughter.

At the Federal Building, CIA agent Shawna Eason is quick to bring Cassie to the interrogation room containing Argentov, who prattles on before Cassie urges him to speak his piece. Argentov relays that the Fury was infuriated by Cobalt's rejection of him in Paris, and that the Fury of Sevastopol, one of his sons and a genius like Cobalt Black, has deduced that the Fury sees Cassie as her replacement. Seeing Cassie's confusion, Argentov gloats that since she is unlike her siblings in that she was born naturally, the Fury wants to use her to seed his race of superhumans and will keep her as a slave. Disgusted and put off by Argentov's cackling, Cassie leaves the room, where she and Trey are informed by Eason of the Fury's attack on Walters' office; while Walters never talked before being killed, a computer expert was tortured to give up Cassie's address, so the Fury now knows where to find her.

Cassie and Trey deduce that the Fury will be heading to Salt Lake City now to go after Silvia, Cobalt Silver, who unlike the others has chosen a quiet existence running the women's shelter at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. Silvia chooses that moment to call Cassie; while she doesn't want to die, she has accepted her fate and asks Cassie to pray for her before reminding her younger sister that along with her intelligence, Cassie has the humility and imagination that Black doesn't, asking that she use them to defeat the Fury. When the Fury lands before the cathedral, Silvia offers no resistance, instead warning that there is someone who can stop his rampage. The Fury assumes she means Gary, aka Cobalt Gold, though Silvia indicates otherwise and starts praying as the Fury crushes her head.

Before Cassie and Trey leave, they are contacted by General Hank Stevenson, who relays that two of the Fury's sons, the Furies of Leningrad and Stalingrad, have assaulted Pearl Harbor and are now heading for Los Angeles. Furthermore, the President has reluctantly ordered all U.S. forces to stand down in the hope that the Fury will be amenable to negotiations when his campaign is over. Cassie is angered that she and her remaining brothers are being left to die, and while apologetic, Stevenson is unable to give her any useful intel on the whereabouts of the Fury's remaining two sons. As they start to drive home, Cassie and Trey's car is surrounded by a motorcade containing the Vice President, who asks the pair to accompany him.

Once with the Vice President, his car enters a secret tunnel beneath LAX and drives to an elevator that leads to a hanger containing Air Force Two. However, waiting for them is the Fury of Moscow, who has made a deal with the Vice President to make him the governor of America for the Furies in exchange for bringing Cassie to them, so that the Fury of Russia can take her as his slave. Recalling Cobalt Red's advice from when he trained her to fight, Cassie takes the initiative to strike first, kicking the Fury of Moscow away and briefly stunning him, allowing Cassie to grab the Vice President and flee back to the underground tunnel with Trey. Moscow pursues them and flips their car. Cassie and Trey avoid harm while the Vice President is injured, and Cassie urges Trey to run while she flies straight up and damages the ceiling, brining tons of earth and cement down, separating them from Moscow and killing the Vice President.

Cassie and Trey return to their home to find Cobalt Black waiting for them. To Cassie's astonishment, Black denounces their mother's actions serving America, believing that they should be rulers themselves. Black invites Cassie to join him as he enacts a plan to defeat the Fury, warning that it's that or be cut off and probably killed later by him if he succeeds. Cassie refuses and questions why he came at all; Black forlornly notes that she is one of the few people he feels he can have a relatively equal conversation with before departing. With perhaps two hours until the Fury, Leningrad and Stalingrad converge on L.A., Cassie begins formulating a plan and tries to call Gary, but no one answers.

As it happens, "Golden Gary" is now meeting the Fury on the empty Strip of Las Vegas. The Fury takes a moment to demean Gary's homosexuality and the decadence of Vegas before the two engage. Two years earlier, Gary invited Cassie to his penthouse suite, where he presented her with a superhero suit and told Cassie that if she wanted to, she could be a hero. Having long been lauded as the most skilled fighter of all the Cobalts, Golden Gary provides a greater challenge for the Fury than his siblings had, with their fight lasting 30 minutes and seeing Gary crack the Fury's visor. The Fury eventually gets the upper hand and throws Gary into a construction pit, then grabs the entire Stratosphere Tower and throws it down like a spear, and when the dust settles there is no sign of Cobalt Gold. Certain of his demise, the Fury wreaks havoc across the city before flying west once more.

As the news reports on Gold's death, Black calls Cassie again, offering her a final chance to join him, and telling her that her emotions make her weak when she refuses. At the surface of the Groom Lake Complex, the Fury meets Black, who gives him two options, join forces and let Black rule America, or he can just kill him. The Fury is curious as to how Black intends to kill him, and while confident when confirming he can withstand a nuclear blast, he is less certain when Black questions if he can survive 10 such blasts. At that point, Black reveals that he is not actually there, only a hologram projected by a disc, at which point he detonates all 10 warheads in the nearby hangers. Watching from afar, Cobalt Black is annoyed to see the Fury narrowly escape the blast and fly into the stratosphere, then walks away.

Cassie dons the suit Gary had made for her, accepting her long-unused codename, Cobalt Blue. Reflecting on the teachings of her parents and older siblings (except Black), she uses coloured sharpies to mark her helmet in her siblings' signature colours before she and Trey set out to prepare for the Furies' arrival.

Within the hour, the Fury of Russia and the Furies of Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad have convened in the skies over L.A., and Cassie draws their attention to her position on top of SpaceX's warehouses. Luring them inside, Cassie manages to trick Leningrad into stepping into a vat of supercooled nitrogen, trapping him and allowing Cassie to fire an electromagnetic rail gun at the Fury's son, killing him. As the Fury, Moscow and Stalingrad arrive, Cassie leads them on a chase over the Los Angeles River, during which Trey activates two hidden JPL cutting lasers, which Stalingrad inadvertently flies through and is cut to pieces. Cassie briefly engages Russia and Moscow, damaging and removing the former's helmet before fleeing with Trey to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Though knowing it is a trap, the Fury and Moscow enter the Lab anyway, which proves fatal for the latter as Cassie blasts the room with nitrogen, which freezes Moscow's lungs. However, this isn't enough to affect the Fury of Russia since he has twice the resistance of his son, and the Fury is quick to chase and pin down Cassie, pummeling her and gloating his intent to make her his sex slave. Trey vainly tries to help, but the Fury breaks the bones in his chest for his trouble. Before the Fury can kill him, Gary - having scarcely managed to escape the Fury's seemingly fatal attack - arrives and knocks the Fury back. Cassie has one more idea to use, and Gary tries to buy her more time until the Fury knocks him unconscious.

The Fury confronts Cassie in another lab, boasting that there is nothing she can do to hurt him. Cassie manages to trick the Fury into inhaling as the air pressure in the lab increases, and as she ducks into a hollow satellite and seals herself inside, the pressure suddenly drops, and the Fury of Russia's lungs explode. Due to his nigh-invulnerable chest muscles, the burst within his lungs damages most of his organs, and the Fury dies coughing up most of his battered organs. Cassie checks on Trey and Gary, and then has the latter livestream on his social networks so that Cassie can declare the Fury's death and reveal herself to the world as Cobalt Blue.

In a secret lab somewhere in Siberia, the Fury of Russia's last son, the Fury of Sevastopol, otherwise known as the Genius, watches the news reports on the Fury's death. The Genius laments that his father should have waited until they were ready, but concedes that at least now they know about Cassie's existence. Meanwhile, somewhere in Nevada, Cobalt Black also sees the report and commends Cassie, noting that she has now opened up a new world of possibilities.

Characters

The Cobalts

• Cassie Cassowitz / Cobalt Blue
• Gary "Golden Gary" Cobalt / Cobalt Gold
• Reggie Cobalt / Cobalt Red
• Greg Cobalt / Cobalt Green
• Silvia Cobalt / Cobalt Silver
• Winnie Cobalt / Cobalt White
• Paul Cobalt / Cobalt Purple
• Blaine Cobalt / Cobalt Black
• Doctor Christine Cobalt / Cobalt

The Furies

• Sergeant Nikolai Furin / The Fury of Russia
• The Fury of Moscow
• The Fury of Stalingrad
• The Fury of Odessa
• The Fury of Kazan
• The Fury of Leningrad
• The Fury of Sevastopol / The Genius

Others

• Trey Cassowitz
• Professor Arnold "Arnie" Cobalt
• Marshal Connie-Anne Walters
• Agent Anatoly Argentov
• Secretary of State Elizabeth Halderman
• Emmett Tibbet
• The The Vice President of the United States
• Agent Shawna Eason
• General Hank Stevenson
• The President of the United States (mentioned only)
• Harold Kolhoffer (mentioned only)

Locations

• United States of America
  • Maryland
    • Washington, D.C.
      • The Pentagon
      • The White House (mentioned only)
  • California
    • Los Angeles
      • Jet Propulsion Laboratory
      • Cassowitz Residence
      • SpaceX
      • Federal Building
      • Los Angeles International Airport
        • E.C.I. Tunnel
      • Los Angeles River
    • San Francisco (mentioned only)
  • New York State
    • New York City
      • One World Trade Center
      • SoHo Apartment Building
      • New York Public Library
      • The Empire State Building
  • Texas
    • Amarillo
      • First Cobalt Residence (flashback only)
  • Nevada
    • Las Vegas
      • The Strip
        • Planet Hollywood (flashback only)
        • MSG Sphere
        • LINQ Casino
        • Stratosphere Tower
        • Bellagio
        • MGM Grand
        • Caesar's Palace
      • Harry Reid International Airport
    • Groom Lake Military Testing Complex
      • Cobalt Black's Laboratory
  • Illinois
    • Chicago
      • City Hall
      • Hancock Tower
      • Wrigley Field
      • Willis Tower
      • Soldier Field
    • Lake Michigan
  • Utah
    • Salt Lake City
      • Cathedral of the Madeleine
  • Montana
    • Dillon
      • Second Cobalt Residence (flashback only)
  • Colorado
    • Denver
      • U.S. Marshals Western Division Field Office
  • Hawaii (mentioned only)
    • Pearl Harbor (mentioned only)
• Russia
  • Moscow
  • Siberia
    • The Genius's Military Facility
• Arctic Circle
• France
  • Paris (flashback only)
    • Palace of Versailles (flashback only)
• Atlantic Ocean (flashback only)
• Hungary (mentioned only)
• Ukraine (mentioned only)
• Uzbekistan (mentioned only)
• Crimea (mentioned only)
• Georgia (mentioned only)

Gallery

UK Release cover

Cobalt Blue artwork

Fury of Russia artwork

Videos

Matthew Reilly talks about Cobalt Blue!

Trivia

• This is the fourth of Reilly's novels to feature a main female protagonist, following Bess in The Tournament, CJ Cameron in The Great Zoo of China, and Skye Rogers in The Secret Runners of New York.
• The first edition hardbacks of the novel features coloured text in some sections, which has plot relevance. [1]. The coloured segments are flashback scenes that reflect significant lessons Cassie learns from her siblings and parents that shape how she accepts her role as a hero.
  • Cobalt White does not have a dedicated coloured text section, instead sharing the same purple text as her twin, Cobalt Purple, likely due to the difficulties of using white text.
• In the post-novel interview, Reilly revealed that he had begun writing Cobalt Blue as a screenplay, before expanding the story into the current, novel version. The screenplay version of the story was said to contain less scenes, such as the cruise liner incident and the scene with the Vice President at LAX. Reilly maintains that he'd like to direct a film adaption of it at some point.
• As suggested by the two epilogues, Reilly has some ideas that he may implement in a sequel.

External Links

• https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781761261671/
• 1. https://fb.watch/ehy-OfZSeh/