The Phaeton Condition — Douglas R. Mason

Once upon a future century, a young man with both feet firmly planted on the ladder of Establishment success discovered that the powers that be - the powers he served--were plotting to lock the planet into a suicidal course for their own profit. For the earth was in the same condition as Phaeton's sun-chariot in the myth--hurtling towards destruction. So, Tom Lockhart had a choice to make. He could pretend not to know what he knew, and protect himself from those who would certainly kill a lone man to preserve their genocidal scheme. He could, at considerable risk, exploit the knowledge to save himself when catastrophe came. Or, he could fight the plot--at the near-certain cost to his life, and with near-zero chances of saving the world anyway. He astonished himself more that anyone when he made the third choice and set off a planet-wide chase employing all the dazzling ingenuity of a technologically sophisticated age with all the weapons in the hands of his ruthless opponents.