Eraser

Eraser is a novel by American screenwriter Tony Puryear. The film of the same name, directed by Chuck Russell and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was released in 1996. The story revolves around the U.S. Marshals Service Witness Security Program: the protagonist John erases the old identities of witnesses who testify in court and arranges new lives for them, an operation code-named "Eraser." On his new assignment he must protect Ellen, a senior employee of Cyrez, a major defense contractor. Acting on FBI instructions, Ellen has obtained core materials showing that the company secretly manufactures banned superweapons and sells them on the black market, and she immediately becomes a target for elimination. John arrives as an assassin is attacking with an advanced new weapon of futuristic design; he saves Ellen and tells her the truth. But the protection program springs a leak, and John's colleague and superior Robert DeGuerin proposes breaking the "single-line operation" rule and relocating all the witnesses together. John grows suspicious, gives a false address, and is forced to jump from a plane to escape. Ellen sees through the contact's true identity and flees into a zoo, where she reunites with John. With help from another witness, Johnny, the two infiltrate Cyrez and retrieve from its computer system hard evidence of the black-market arms deals and their location, leading to a final showdown with DeGuerin at the docks. At trial, the defendants' high positions and the destruction of the physical evidence make conviction difficult; only by setting a trap and putting themselves in danger do John and the others bring the mastermind to justice. The book moves at a tight pace, weaving chases, explosions, and technological imagination together; "Eraser" in the title is both a professional term and a metaphor for the erasure of identity and truth.