A convoluted tale of wounded warriors-men, women returned from Mid-East wars with injured bodies, damaged psyches. America's patriot heroes, lost in a jungle of medical bureaucracy. Healing is slow. Even slower, dawning awareness their costly sacrifices mean little to fellow Americans. Medal award ceremonies can't conceal a base side of American culture. Soldiers are expected to melt into society and not further trouble fellow citizens. Often unaided, many fall beneath the American economic steamroller. A few discover power by taking matters in hand. The latter focus on a deadly struggle to preserve America's freedoms. Wounded warriors conjoin, first among themselves, later with unique patriots buried in government. This bloc underlies the story core of this 3rd book of serial. At serial outset, heroine and anti-hero search for meaning in life. Karen Raney, raised in a small town chooses an unusual career path-the F.B.I. As serial begins Karen's convinced her F.B.I. career is sinking. She's intent on capturing a bank robber. During her probe, she meets her prime suspect, the anti-hero. He's a piece of work. Born and raised in New York City, Johnnie Pellagio's rearing sharply contrasts to Karen's. He's attended college, like Karen, but he's also been enrolled in the school of hard knocks. Mid-East wars and a combat injury take a toll. After the military, Johnnie's vexed; angry, hostile, frustrated with the system. By first encounter with Karen, he's changed his name to conceal past anti-social behavior. Karen scopes out Johnnie's past. Desperate to save her career, Karen tries to arrest him. Johnnie diverts her attention with charm, wiles and a mind boggling revelation. Soon, Johnnie and Karen are romantically joined at the hip. Before their escapades can land them in jail, dramatic lifestyle/career changes spin them into a string of exciting adventures. 'Slipstream', begins with Karen's return from deadly encounters in the Mid-East; a theocracy threatening to build a covert nuclear arsenal. Karen is bogged down in courtroom battles. Embedded Al Qaeda in America-A/Q-jihadists are being wrung through a secret arm of the American justice system. Finally, Karen gets a fresh case: solve puzzling-likely criminal-aspects of recent airline disasters. Charles Dodd (née Johnnie Pellagio) leads the stalwart patriot soldier organization-the PSO. He works by Karen's side on intriguing parallel issues: explain puzzling A/Q moves on U.S. soil. Is A/Q positioning assets for a nuclear assault or is it just a ruse? Has A/Q added a nuclear weapon of a radical, untested design to their arsenal already hidden on American soil? Soldiers shadow suspects. Terror fighting contacts expand between the PSO and unique patriots hidden within U.S government. A/Q remains undeterred, active and intent on waging jihad in America despite damage inflicted by the PSO. Gordon Halstead, Ass't. Director of Homeland Security for Special Threat Assessments, continues a delicate balancing act promoting crime fighting ties between formal law enforcement and the PSO. An entertaining thread-the 'retro visions'-chronicles huge emotional impacts of the Director's unusual role on his psyche and personal life. In prior books, Karen and Charles' personal ties spanned a full spectrum of romantic possibilities. 'Slipstream' breathes fresh vitality into the serial as a beguiling new relationship piece enters the picture. An ongoing theme: corrupt, immoral elected U.S officials ruling in concert with greedy, thuggish capitalists. Feisty patriots miss no opportunity to confront capitalists soaring to new economic heights on the backs of their fellow Americans. The PSO make manifest their contempt for the capitalists by pulling the highest profile among these 'fair weather' citizens into the fight against terrorism. Patriots pick their pockets for monetary contributions and force them to 'get skin into the game'!
About the Author: Greg Pierce is a retired professional engineer and professional land surveyor. He resides in northern New England. Writing fiction has become his second career. He particularly enjoys bringing technical background to the fictional novel arena. He introduces and explains in his serial, unusual technical theories, novel gadgets, cutting edge technical devices, tools, machines and systems in order to heighten plot interest. Injecting into a fictional tale, technology which trips along the shadowy interface between reality and imaginative myth, can't help but garner reader attention. Is there really such a device as an insectothopter? Are laser weapons truly in as advanced a state of development as the story suggests? Is the author describing real stuff, real things? Or is the author spinning out close imitations of real stuff, real things? Is the reader being gulled by a charlatan who enjoys skating along the cliff edge of readers' propensity for suspending disbelief? But, wait! The author has provided a glossary at the end of each book! Will the reader check it out? What does Wikipedia have to say about it? The Karen Raney, Special Agent of the F.B.I. terrorist crime-fighting series has provided a marvelous forum for challenging readers and pulling them into the story with the technology gambit. Resolution of the technology issues implanted in the serial should comprise a large share of reader entertainment and satisfaction with the story. Alongside cutting edge technology, as an entertainment strategy, is geography. What reader doesn't love being flown, or driven or sailed to and about Earth's myriad exciting venues? The author has endeavored to site serial action and adventures in the widest possible array of appealing and captivating physical locations. The author claims personal knowledge of many, but not all, of the environs where his serial's actions and adventures take place. As the varying threads of the serial's story plots wend and weave their way into a complex fabric, the cast of characters grows. Mercifully, the author has included, at the end of each book, a comprehensive list of principal characters and the chapter number of each character's first appearance in the story.