Special Note to the 2018 Library Release of this 1992 Classic: According to a late 2017 study, the nation is closer than ever to a possible Second Constitutional Convention (CON2), which would be the most dangerous event in our history, given what talk show host Ron Reagan (son of the late President Ronald Reagan) has called "our national tragedy." He means the rise of Donald Trump amid the cynical, Machiavellian conniving of Mitch McConnell, and the dirty operations of the corporate oligarchs. The rigged election of 2016 was a coup in itself, seizing all branches of government in an ongoing global-corporate takeover of the USA. Read Explanation Nation, nonfiction by John T. Cullen for the first really coherent explanation of the November 2016 coup by corporate powers. CON2 seems today more prescient than ever, and worth a read. (CTB, Dec.2017). The following text seems eerily prescient today: Two young U.S. Army officers, serving in differing intelligence units in Washington, D.C. as the convention begins, join forces in a puzzling murder investigation. Captain David Gordon and Lieutenant Victoria (Tory) Breen are on the trail of a missing Coast Guard computer genius. The trail takes them to a virtual world of digital commerce (presciently envisioned years ago, and still vibrantly original). The hidden worlds of the CloudMaster network take them to a conspiracy involving the vice president (murdered by domestic terrorists a year ago) and from there to a cabal of generals, admirals, and others who are determined to save us from ourselves, scrap all that evil liberal and godless nonsense in the Constitution, and provide us with a robust scriptural tyranny that would make Oliver Cromwell, Savanarola, or Cotton Mather envious. Read it as an entertaining thriller first, but secondly as a dire warning. The novel was never intended to be a legal analysis or a 300 page footnote in fine print. The author's design is to tell a gripping suspense thriller with a solid romantic story line, leaving the enormous story of CON2 sufficiently but not overwhelmingly displayed as a backdrop. It's a love story, a murder mystery, a conspiracy thriller, and above all a good read. It's not a history of the universe or a road map for galactic hitchhikers, but a good solid story that keeps its feet on the ground and its head low while the world explodes all around it. Any year now, we will have a Second Constitutional Convention (CON2), the first such assembly of the states since the Founding Fathers of 1776 became the Framing Fathers of 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It will be the worst mistake we ever make. The author wrote his classic political thriller in 1992 as a silver bullet to kill this werewolf before it ever shows its teeth. CON2 must be killed dead before it can ever happen. With the corporations firmly in control of all branches of government, it may be impossible to stop them now. Article V is a ticking time bomb embedded in the U.S. Constitution. In a dangerous election year, when at least one ranting demagogue leads the pack racing toward the White House and its nuclear triggers, the danger is greater than ever. In a few vague words that leave much to the imagination, Article V lets us change our Constitution one amendment at a time, or to rewrite it, or just totally scrap it and go for broke with something utterly new and crazy. Can we really improve on the genius of the Framing Fathers of 1787 in Philadelphia? Do we dare? Once CON2 gavels into session, our world is up for grabs - as the author demonstrates between the lines, without ever losing sight of his primary mission: an entertaining and romantic suspense thriller about a coup d'etat already begun, and about to run its final lap toward total coporate tyranny. It's a theme the author has also explored in his prescient 2016 thriller Valley of Seven Castles. Visit the johntcullen website for more info.