And only one man can stop it. The year is 2026 and up and down the Eastern seaboard of the United States a virulent toxin is killing people. What was initially believed to be food poisoning turns out to be a terrorist attack using genetically modified insects to poison the American food supply. For Gabriel Marx, news of the poisoning is eerily familiar. A Marine Corps veteran and trained viticulturist, Gabriel is now working as a vintner at Landmark Estates Winery in California, but was once part of a secret CIA effort to use insect vectors to destroy the Afghan Taliban’s poppy industry. He’s long feared that genetically synthesized toxins delivered by insects could be used as a terror weapon. One day a stream of black SUVs carrying the Secretary of Homeland Security shows up at the vineyard, and Gabriel is recruited to help the government respond to the attack. He is drawn into a complex web of rogue scientists with links to ISIS and Chechen terrorists, and discovers that an even more devastating attack is imminent. Merging cutting-edge synthetic biology with global politics and international terrorism, The Bug Hunter is both thriller and cautionary tale of how advances in technology can be used to turn nature itself into a devastating weapon.

    . . Despite her desire for control, Ara Hopkins has always felt like a pawn—constantly being maneuvered by those surrounding her. Carrying a riddled past of abandonment by her mother, a jealous step-sister and exploitation by men she was supposed to be able to trust, Ara craves a social media certified life. So, when she meets her husband, a New York congressman’s son, she believes she’s finally won her game. Secure in a life her mother would approve of—and having firmly shut the door on her chaotic and miscalculated past—Ara feels she’s thriving. Until the night her husband is murdered. Thrust into a game of deceit and lies, Ara realizes that nothing is as it seems and that the past can quickly return to the present. The facade crumbles as relationships are tested and family boundaries crossed. Faced with losing it all, she discovers what a person is really capable of. Because in this game of life, it's either rook or be rooked. An intricately braided plot with unforeseeable twists and a sucker-punch ending, Rooked is a captivating thriller that shatters all perceptions.

    He can see and hear everything around the world, yet a mesh restrains his reach, forcing his cooperation. His creator, Dr. Jessica Tallette, believes his special abilities offer great promise for humanity. But she fears the consequences of freeing him, because Criss, a sentient artificial intelligence with the intellect of a thousand humans, is too powerful to control. Tallette’s world is upended when the Kardish, a race of alien traders, announce that they want Criss for themselves, expressing their desires with ominous undertones. She turns to the Union of Nations for help, and they task Sid, a special agent, with leading the response. Sid believes that Criss is Earth’s greatest weapon and asks him to confront the Kardish. But can the AI be trusted? And what is humanity’s role if an interstellar battle among titans starts to rage?Keywords: science fiction, space thriller, strong women, artificial intelligence, military adventure, alien contact, space fleet

    The class of child genius Gabby Morningstar is interrupted by the news that her parents have been murdered. The detective assigned to the homicide then abducts her. Before Gabby can piece together her situation, she's sold to a mysterious group of individuals lurking off of an unmarked highway exit. Gabby's feral runaway sister, Nikki, will stop at nothing to find her.

    He enjoys his expensive toys, lush mansion, and life of comfort, but something is missing. A chance meeting with fellow billionaires sparks his imagination and he sets forth on a new venture. He will buy a nuclear aircraft carrier, sail it through the Great Lakes, drag it across Northern Minnesota to an Indian reservation, and hook it up to the power grid. With this bold publicity stunt, he hopes to reinvigorate the nuclear energy debate in this country. Intrepid visionaries see into the future and trudge forward. They are the builders of societies and the makers of progress. But sometimes they get sidetracked and lull into comfort. Along the way Tyler encounters an echelon of obstacles from angry energy companies to zealous environmentalists, and even his own nuclear physicist peers. The government wants to shut him down, his own wife thinks he’s crazy, and he’s running out of money. But Tyler also learns that people love getting behind a man with a vision. In this adventure we learn of leadership, ingenuity in the face of overwhelming odds, and what it is to take people with you. Who will you take with when your inspiration comes?

    Gabriel is the best Contract Enforcer the State has ever created, trained from childhood to efficiently identify and eliminate threats to society’s vital balance and ensure every citizen adheres to their Social Contract.Asa has spent his life in one of the State’s carefully planned farming communities, but he yearns for something more. The day after his twenty-first birthday, he sets out for the metropolis of Horizon—but compliance with his Social Contract turns out to be more complicated than he could have imagined. He soon meets the girl of his dreams, Eve, an outsider in Horizon who has learned to survive for years using her guile and beauty.When an unexpected tragedy forces Asa and Eve to go on the run, Gabriel is determined to track them down and deliver the State’s justice. Their joined paths will take them into the Waste, farther away from the State’s seemingly omnipresent gaze than any of them have ever been. The truths they uncover will force them to reexamine everything they know.

    His use of intimate, personal stories provides a raw, unfiltered view of human nature in its most vulnerable state. Freeman shares his unique perspective on many ancient truths and introduces several insightful theories of his own while injecting just a hint of humor. Most importantly though, he provides simple, practical exercises which allow the reader to experience profound, life-long benefits. Are you ready to dig deep?

    In this MMORPG penal colony, inmates PVP to gain EXP, loot, and most of all...survive. Seph has been sentenced to play in one of these virtual correctional facilities. Sounds fun right? Maybe for some, but there is no worse punishment for Seph, mostly because he isn't a gamer. Will he be able to complete his sentence with all the trials and objectives thrown at him? Trapped in a virtual world he cannot escape, Seph now has to step outside of his comfort zone and align himself with the very thing he's been rebelling against his whole life--the system. Game designer and avid gamer, P.A. Wikoff wrote this story as a love letter to a lifetime of gaming.

    A nuclear terror plot is thwarted just outside Washington, D.C. And it’s an election year. Mandisa “Mandi” Nkosi is a young reporter who, while on a trip to Johannesburg to connect with her roots, is contacted by an anonymous source with evidence that material seized from a nuclear terror plot will point squarely at one of humanity’s most important companies as the supplier. The source also unveils that the “evidence” against the company - Applied Interstellar Corporation (AIC), a science and technology behemoth with more corporate and political foes than can be counted - is a setup, and part of a plot to destroy AIC and gain control of its technological secrets. The deeper Mandi digs, the more of a target she becomes. What follows is a heart-pounding, unforgettable ride through the hallowed halls of big government, far-flung star systems, and the revelation of a conspiracy that runs so deep, Mandi’s life, and the future of humanity, are put at stake. ˃˃˃ A thrilling, fast-paced technothriller story that spans two planets, four star systems, and crosses the depths of space. Winner: 2016 Beverly Hills Book Award (Science Fiction)Winner: 2016 Readers Favorite Bronze Metal (Thriller)Winner: 2016 Pinnacle Achievement Award

    Now, her father has been found executed and a serial killer is leaving a trail of female bodies across the city. Are these cases related? Who could be behind such a wide spread epidemic of organized crime. As the case unwinds and more bodies stack up, O'Malley must choose between what his gut is telling him, and what the case is being designed to show. Will O'Malley find the killer, or is the killer leading the detective to a deadly frame-up of a young man in over his head? The missing girl may hold the answer, if only she could be found.

    WHAT IF YOU'RE A SENTIENT SPACECRAFT who wants to be more than an intelligent weapon to implement government policy? Do you partner with another by-the-book sentinel like the one you just lost to your enemies or gamble on someone different, even if they are a middle-aged dad from a primitive world called Earth? And can you learn to work with him before your enemies kill billions? In Saabrina, book one of the Saabrina series, Saabrina, a small sentient spacecraft called a Saab (not the car from Sweden, but she can become one to blend in on Earth and anywhere else you’re expected to keep four wheels on the ground), gets a new partner, Bob Foxen, and maybe a start to something more.

    Millions of people crammed into a few square miles resulting in overcrowding, starvation, pollution and a daily fight for survival in a crime and disease-ridden city.The Continental Wars that started in 2167, and only ended when the entire population of the planet was nearly wiped out, were shortly followed by an increase in temperature and the melting of the ice caps. This created global flooding and devastation until the waters receded and the oceans all but dried up in the boiling heat. Global warming and toxic fallout created an environment not fit for humans or animals. The ancients had created a double death blow with their wars, overpopulation and mass industrialisation, raping and pillaging the planet of its natural resources along the way.Carl is a scavenger and survivor, born in the dust of the old city. One day, while out searching for supplies, he uncovers a secret plan to solve the Earth's resource problems once and for all. The elite say it’s a brilliant plan, one that will restore humans to their former glory, while others know it's madness and risks the destruction of mankind.

    A complicated web of clues leaves Sasha and his team with more questions than answers: What's the killer's motive? And how are the victims connected to one another? As the story begins to unravel, the ordinarily calm and collected Sasha begins to feel the immense pressure of the case. Will he be able to solve the mystery before time runs out and bring justice to all who were affected?

    Time outside their lab has jumped forward by twenty-two hours. Minutes before this illogical space-time event, they were analyzing a mysterious glowing nodule extracted from an unknown marine specimen.News of this marine life reaches powerful governments, inadvertently triggering a race to hunt, capture and control it. But these governments and their nationalist leaders have never faced a team of scientists known as the Paramarines. They have no idea to what lengths Sebastian and his Paramarines will go in order to protect the species from capture and exploitation.The first of a multi-book series, this genre-bending novel leaves readers on the edge of their seats. Thrilling like Blake Crouch and science-driven like Ted Chang, all approached in ways you’ve never seen before. A captivating adventure, a heartbreaking story of love, and a true display of human ingenuity and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds.

    But navigating around their controlling stepfather and their aloof new siblings becomes the least of their worries.There is a vague sense of menace in their state of the art lavish smart home with its cutting edge calm technology. And something is not quite right with the bright, cheerful kids at Santomon’s private school where the girls are enrolled. Undergrads from prestigious universities and ivy-league colleges are vying for the coveted internships within Santomon Village. The mega-corporation is the darling of the tech world and a philanthropic superstar when it comes to awarding educational scholarships to low-income families who require rehabilitative services for their teens at Santomon’s troubled youth program called Salinger House.But not everyone is singing Santomon praises. A growing number of parents whose children have returned home from the program are voicing concerns that at first seem vague, while a social activist group called The Disruptors has been investigating a cash-for-kids scandal in South Dakota that involves Santomon. For Tori, she can feel that something ominous, something evil is afoot, and as her mother begins to have doubts about her marriage and there is talk of divorce, Tori yearns to return to Inglewood and the simple life they had. But her sister, Laila ‘s not so sure leaving the village will be easy because what she has discovered is a treacherous web of lies unfathomable in their scope. What Laila wonders is if they can get away from Santomon before it’s too late.