Ball lightning

On his fourteenth birthday, right before his eyes, Chen's parents are incinerated by a blast of ball lightning. Striving to make sense of this bizarre tragedy, he dedicates his life to unlocking the secrets of this enigmatic natural phenomenon. His pursuit of ball lightning takes him far from home, chasing storms across mountain peaks and into highly classified subterranean laboratories. But Chen's obsession can't insulate him from the real world's interest in his discoveries.
He will be pitted against scientists, soldiers and governments with motives of their own : a physicist who has no place for moral judgement ; a beautiful army major obsessed with new ways to wage war ; a desperate nation facing certain military defeat...