Adrian J. Smith – författare

Would you risk it all the save your family?

Living in New Zealand, Jack Gee thought he was safe. The beautiful, isolated country had always provided a sense of security. When a virus begins to spread across the globe, he is on a hiking trip in the mountains, blissfully unaware. A desperate message from his wife Dee alerts him to the viral threat that turns humans into apex predators with one purpose—to kill.

The country collapses as Jack races to get home, and when he finally does make it out of the mountains he finds his peaceful life has been shattered. Banding with other survivors, they all must quickly learn how to survive in this new world.

In the fight to stay alive, friendship and family will be tested and new alliances formed. But dangerous new enemies emerge in the war for the future of the country, and the world.

As an industrial process, construction is unique. The procurement processes used to achieve the successful completion of built assets requires a different approach to that adopted in most other industries, due to the design of buildings being bespoke and the sites being geographically varied. The procurement process is central to the success of any construction project and many of the problems which impact construction projects can be traced back to the procurement phase, so a good understanding of the methods of procurement, the development of a procurement strategy and the influence it has on project success is essential for all those working in the industry.

Much has changed in the global construction industry since publication of the second edition of Building Procurement, for example the increase in debt burden of many major economies, widespread adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Technology in the industry and the United Kingdom''s exit from the European Union. This new edition has been rewritten to take account of these significant developments, but at its core it continues to provide a critical examination and review of current procurement practices in the UK, continental Europe (including EU procurement procedures), China, Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa and the USA. It retains its original strong emphasis on the need for clients to establish achievable objectives which reflect the project business case and focuses on development of suitable strategies and management structures to meet those objectives in the current construction climate.

Building Procurement will be essential reading for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students of construction management and practitioners working in all areas of construction management.

As an industrial process, construction is unique. The procurement processes used to achieve the successful completion of built assets requires a different approach to that adopted in most other industries, due to the design of buildings being bespoke and the sites being geographically varied. The procurement process is central to the success of any construction project and many of the problems which impact construction projects can be traced back to the procurement phase, so a good understanding of the methods of procurement, the development of a procurement strategy and the influence it has on project success is essential for all those working in the industry.

Much has changed in the global construction industry since publication of the second edition of Building Procurement, for example the increase in debt burden of many major economies, widespread adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Technology in the industry and the United Kingdom''s exit from the European Union. This new edition has been rewritten to take account of these significant developments, but at its core it continues to provide a critical examination and review of current procurement practices in the UK, continental Europe (including EU procurement procedures), China, Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa and the USA. It retains its original strong emphasis on the need for clients to establish achievable objectives which reflect the project business case and focuses on development of suitable strategies and management structures to meet those objectives in the current construction climate.

Building Procurement will be essential reading for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students of construction management and practitioners working in all areas of construction management.

You can give up killing, but death never leaves you …

After a lifetime of hunting down criminals, Ryan just wants to live out his days in peace and in the shadows of Tokyo to grieve the loss of his wife and son. But his old team—the Nameless, experts in extraction and recon—comes with an urgent request for help. The young daughter of one of his closest friends, a girl he once treated as his own, has been kidnapped.

The search leads Ryan and his team into the Japanese mountains and a town steeped in secrets that a new sinister adversary wishes to keep hidden. He begins to unravel a deep, macabre plot that goes far beyond this missing girl. With enemies from the past reemerging, they begin targeting members of the Nameless. Ryan quickly realizes that no matter how hard he tries to leave this world behind, it will never let him go until he defeats his demons. Those demons are not just after him, and if they aren’t stopped, it could put all of humanity at risk.

To survive hell, you must make a deal with the devil …

In the aftermath of a global catastrophe that has killed billions, old enemies become allies in order to survive. When Ryan Connors and his former recon team, the Nameless, form an alliance with the Yakuza, they learn of a new plot that could lead to countless more deaths. Armed with this knowledge, and driven by revenge, Ryan and his team launch a desperate bid to stop OPIS from executing their plans to destroy the world.

In America, prisoner Zanzi Connors is offered a way out and a chance to find her father and join the fight. But her freedom comes at a cost, forcing her to do something that goes against everything she believes—take another life.

Like father, like daughter, even though they are separated by fate, Ryan and Zanzi are bonded by a common mission to save humanity—no matter what the personal cost, even if it means their own lives.

In war, the true self is revealed …

Injured and shaken, Ryan Connors and the Nameless are trapped at a former NSA listening station in the Aleutian Islands. To escape, they must put aside their distrust and launch an operation needed to halt OPIS from completing what they started—unrestricted dominion.

In Oregon, Zanzi Connors and Director Lisa Omstead have reunited to search for the one person who could provide the answers they seek, Doctor Josie Lahm, the scientist responsible for creating the technology that has caused so much suffering. But the enemy will do anything to protect their asset.

With options running low, new allies and old adversaries must come together in the pivotal battle for the fate of humanity.