As each of the nine found a place on the ledge overlooking the land below, they gently held hands. Not only to steady themselves physically, but mentally as well. What they saw was a vast wasteland, devoid of vegetation, in the midst of a perpetual, but stationary, tornado-and cold, so very cold. As far as one could look, there was darkness, but a visible darkness, an illuminated darkness. The smog of all smog, the haze of all haze. And the wind. Blowing in a swirling, pulsing, random pattern. Then, suddenly, a lightning storm-but very much unlike "normal" lightning. The billion-volt-plus...

Has the U.S. government actually condoned the implantation of experimental mind-altering brain probes? For what purpose, and under whose authority? Have covert government agencies and their operatives trampled the Constitution into a meaningless piece of parchment in the name of "national security?" Is the very core of democracy threatened by a handful of rogue agents? While attending the autopsy of patient John Doe, medical record 15-0039678, who died unexpectedly and for no apparent reason, third-year medical student Chauncey Charles Quinton is assaulted and later found unconscious in a...