Publisher's Synopsis
Ted Marshall wanders into a children's farm where he is accosted by a chicken whose strident cackling drums inside his head, forming frightening words and sentences in his mind. This startling animal telepathy happens again with a caged chicken at a city market. He purchases the hen, taking it home to be told by the bird that he has been chosen to act as an interpreter for an ultimatum that the chicken must deliver to the President and the UN Assembly. Throughout North America, Europe and Asia, billions of chickens are refusing to breed, eat or lay eggs, spreading panic among factory farms, food processors, the stock market and governments around the world. Following a surreal meeting with the chicken at the White House, the President addresses the nation and the UN calls an emergency meeting. Russia's fragile food security is on the verge of collapse, while China is about to launch a bold plan to urbanize 350 million rural citizens. Chicken would be their prime source of meat protein. Suspecting that this disastrous world poultry crisis is a calculated American plot, and believing that Trent Marshall knows the truth, Chinese agents attempt to kidnap him, triggering unintended consequences between humans and farm animals.The Gallus Ultimatum is a fast paced, funny and terrifying novel about the world of factory farming and its impact on international politics and global food security.
