Aftermath (Warner Books)

A.D. 2000-2019: The first African-American president-elect is assassinated...a massive earthquake levels the Midwest...the economic and social fabric collapses in a second civil war...the government dissolves, leaving a continent of homeless refugees and armed militias.... This is the...Aftermath. A desperate land needs a miracle; one about to be provided by Dr. Rene Reynolds, inventor of a prototype medical device that enhances human brain function, empowering individuals to heal themselves from any disease - except greed. For even amid devastation, power-hungry conspirators draw profit from misery, and Dr. Reynolds is soon kidnapped. In the isolation of her captivity, her cries for help go unanswered...her hopes for rescue grow dimmer with each passing moment. But somehow, for reasons unknown to them, three strangers, bound by the same dream, the same vision, hear her desperate plea. In Atlanta: Leon Cane, former NASA scientist, now a broken derelict. In St. Louis: Amy Ladue, an orphaned child to whom life only means avoiding murder and rape. In South Dakota: Jacob Fire Cloud, a Lakota shaman who awaits the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Each one sets out on an odyssey through the shattered remnants of a once-proud nation, to find and rescue a woman none have ever met. Each quest touches the lives of Americans who have stayed strong and good, Americans who have succumbed to bigotry and terror, Americans who have embraced horror and evil. And the miracle a desperate land needs won't be found in a machine, but in the proof that, when even the birthplace of liberty has become Hell on Earth, true souls will still rise up to do the right thing...