Imagine a couple young hacktivists, both former members of the internet freedom fighters group Anonymous, and one of them an ex-black ops officer, breaking away and creating a militant group of anarchists committed to social change. But social change precipitated by acts of violence against CEOs of major corporations responsible for crimes against humanity. Their group, Emergent Movement of Militant Anarchists, or EMMA, believes the power elite will never listen to hollow threats or become intimidated by pranksters like Anonymous. They will listen only when they are forced to live in a state of terror.
That's the mere skeleton of the plot, but what follows, the twists and turns, the surprises, the action and suspense, and the masterful way the author delves into the lives of the principal characters, adds the beef.
A black ops officer turned terrorist is not the story of a renegade NCS commando gone bonkers. Rather the novel tells of a young man, Brent Cossack, accepted into Georgetown University, who decides to forgo college and join the military. As a CIA operative in Iraq, he discovers an ugly truth, and resigns. He returns home and falls in love with a beautiful political activist. Everything seems just swell, until a terrible event in his life pushes him over the edge.
FBI agent Rick Clark finds himself in the middle of an investigation that forces him to relive the saddest time in his life. Since his divorce, he has lived alone, avoiding relationships, except those established at work out of necessity, and one established at home, out of choice, with his commiserating dog, Thomas.
Marty Robins, a psychologist involved in the investigation, helps resuscitate life into Rick, but his real savior comes later in the form of an unexpected hero that restores hope and meaning in his fragmented life.