The Gemini Conspiracy explores the unbridled exploitation of the apparatuses of power in which predator becomes prey within concentric spheres of Machiavellian manipulation. It is also a story of great sacrifice and the power of dogged determination in the face of the unthinkable consequences of failure. The young protagonists must discover and defeat invisible puppeteers in a desperate race to save two kidnapped boys--and possibly a nation. Glen Cannon and his bewitching associate, Ginny Blaine, fall into inescapable intrigue and mortal danger as the underpinnings of the Gemini discovery are realized--and snapped up by unseen forces intending far different purposes.

During an MRI after a Pee-Wee soccer head injury, a savvy pair of Duke University physicians witness what is to them the unfathomable. Yet they cannot deny that the child in their machine has briefly assumed the sentience of his identical twin, waiting with their mother in another room. A government technology futurist spots the doctor's publication of what they describe as "induced telesthesia." Intending to exploit what becomes known as the "Gemini Effect," NASA launches a small research project as an element of its paramount program, the Deep Space Initiative.

But can Gemini be controlled? Can it be made to operate between any two individuals?

Mel Clarkson, the President Russell E. Davis' (RED) science adviser, alerts his boss to certain unintended consequences to the Gemini effort, however promising might be the payoff from the harmless application NASA is pursuing. RED places Gemini under the watchful eye of his old friend, CIA Director Gen. Hume Stiller. Worried, RED confides to his wife the calamity that Gemini might portend--should it slip into hostile hands. He is unaware that his father-in-law is ensconced within a secretive organization that will soon be betting on a dazzling new prize, one that might become the ultimate tool for long distance, risk free espionage.

Fresh out of his Stanford PhD program, Glen Cannon and his bride arrive in Germany buoyed on the tides of hope and expectation. Yet, as her husband builds his career, Ellen languishes, seeing little of him and unmoved by the charms of medieval Heidelberg. Glen's brilliant research attracts the scrutiny of a shadowy European-based cartel. It learns that within Cannon's grasp lie two of the ultimate keys needed to transform Gemini from a mere academic curiosity into something practical--something of immense value.

Kyle Lynn, master cartel operative, inveigles ambitious CIA confederate Norman Cotter to subvert NASA's Gemini project, granting him operational control of his own private black program. Having kidnapped the twins and placed them inside a hidden facility, Lynn is set to tackle the final and seemingly impossible phase of his plan--at whatever the cost.

Lynn's neurologist infuses the injured boy's corpus callosum with a DNA cocktail manufactured from a tiny sample collected from a donor whose mind the team seeks to invade. But the child suffers massive seizures and violent internal conflicts within Lynn's covert unit threaten to derail his meticulous planning. In Europe, the cartel hedges its bets and attempts the "twinning process" at another German lab--one with an approach even more aggressive than Lynn's.

Cartel fingers are poised to touch the levers of French economic power. It intends to "consult" the Governor of the Banque de France, the architect of an ingenious scheme to shore up the flagging French economy. Absolute inside foreknowledge will be the cartel's to exploit. The governor's "Gemini twin," cartel economist, Paul Levine, is set to gain unfettered access to the mind of his silent partner. Convinced there are only minor obstacles left to confront, the cartel's barons become jubilant. They are premature. Still, the steely cartel czar abhors loose ends. Gemini must be his and his alone.

And no one is indis
About the Author: Keith Reiss has been writing for decades, publishing scores of works, among them colorful stories of Africa, and the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic (Dreadnoughts of the Mara and Paths of History in the Northland, appearing in The Explorers Journal). Named Author of the Year by a major US aerospace institution, Reiss has long been prepared for the liberating exercise of his informed imagination through storytelling. His perspectives on modern technology's influence on humanity blossomed as he completed a distinguished university career with his PhD in the molecular physics of DNA at Duke University, where the seeds of The Gemini Conspiracy were sewn. After several years of college teaching, Reiss returned to Washington, DC, his birthplace, and the locale for much of the action in The Gemini Conspiracy. He considers himself fortunate to have played out a panoply of colorful roles, among them: tracking Soviet boomers beneath the polar icecap; scripting and directing massive Pentagon war games; working in the intriguing black world of counter-intelligence and clandestine communications; and inventing drone-based sensors to sniff out terrorist WMD production facilities in the Middle East. In aerospace, Dr. Reiss led many aspects of the design and launch, of dozens of satellites, personally planning and operating a number of missions, including the world's first simultaneously deployed constellation of communications satellites, the low flying MICROSAT birds used in Desert Storm It is hardly surprising that his first novels are provocative thrillers involving non-pristine characters cast into intricate, cutting edge and provocative situations extrapolated from his own unique experiences and interests. Dr. Reiss resides with his wife, Karen, in Wilmington, North Carolina. His two grown children, Cory and Victoria, are both attorneys.