Fire With Fire by Charles E. Gannon. Baen, $14.00, 476pp, tp, 9781451638837. Science fiction.

A century from now, investigative reporter Caine Riordan is following a story on the Moon when he is picked up by the authorities and involuntarily stuck in a cryosleep cell.

A dozen years later, he’s awakened by those who ordered his disappearance, and drafted for a mission of interstellar investigation. A mission that may definitively prove humanity is not alone in the universe. Unfortunately, that discovery may just be the tip of the iceberg, leading to things far more dire.

Gannon has given us a very believable future and an engrossing tale. His hero, Caine, is a very high-functioning polymath: a genius who can see myriad possibilities and choose the best course of action in no time at all. And those are qualities you definitely want when there are assassins on your tail, aiming to keep you from your discoveries or telling your secrets. And you need to think fast, when your on-the-spot decisions will dictate the course — and perhaps very survival — of humanity and its colony worlds.

On reflection, Caine feels a bit like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, moving through a world he knows, discovering disturbing features of it that he’ll need to contend with and overcome. His companions on his journey are flawed: none of them are entirely good, nor entirely honest, but they’re the best available, and they all know their goal is bigger than any one person (even when they don’t know precisely what the goal is).

Fire With Fire is the story of what happens when people transcend their own needs and desires; when they recognize there are bigger issues at stake, and step up to do their best without regard to the consequences or personal costs.

It’s a fascinating story that leaps from crisis to crisis, resolving and discarding them on the climb to ever larger and more Earth-shattering discoveries. But there is a flaw: the ending is rather abrupt, and not all your questions will be answered. Some of the smaller story lines are wrapped up, but the larger arc is left hanging. Gannon tells me that’s because volume 2 in the series, Trial By Fire, is scheduled to be published in Summer 2014, and he signed a contract for volume 3 last November.

I’m already looking forward to the next book.