Synopsis
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 hospital stairwell with a minor head injury, while the other medical staff present for the autopsy are suddenly nowhere to be found - one of them reportedly found dead in another country. Told that no autopsy was ever perfomed, amateur sleuth Quinton undertakes his own investigation and, unknowingly, winds up directly in the path of NSA and CIA undercover operatives surveilling each other. This medical mystery treads into the dark underworld of covert U.S. government surveillance conducted "in the interest of national security." Who authorized the medical procedures that have affected a half-dozen or more individuals with seizure disorders? What purpose does this experiment serve, and to whose benefit? Following the disappearance of the newfound love of his life, Dr. Barbara Lynn Zachary, the self-styled euro-geneticist Quinton winds up with an unlikely "partner" - the overbearing, onion-eating Dr. Stanley J. Pritcherman, Chief of the University Hospital Neurosurgery Service - in their separate, yet aligned, quests for the truth. What will be the public's reaction when news of the fiasco surfaces? Will there even be a reaction, or will this just be another mind-numbing 30-second soundbite in the second segment of the 11:00 pm news? Allow your ethics to be challenged by the dilemmas presented in Always/Never. The story is fictional . . . or is it ?
About the Author
Harding McRae was born on the Isle of Skye, off the coast near Aberdeen, Scotland in 1958 to McGregor Ian McRae and Rosalind McRae (nee Wallace), he a groundskeeper to the royal family at Balmoral and she a professional seamstress. Growing up quickly, Harding gave his first piano recital and concert at age 5 attended by the Queen and later matriculating to the Royal Academy, graduated magna cum laude in physics and mathematics at age 14. Completing his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh, he immediately enlisted in the SAS, rising to the rank of Colonel before transferring to MI6. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002 for his many years of anonymously serving his Queen and country, he retired to the countryside to pursue his avocational interest of United States history and writing. A frequent lecturer around the UK and in the US, Sir Harding remains involved in world affairs and current events. A life-long bachelor and fitness enthusiast, he now concentrates on his passion for gourmet cooking and collecting Italian Barolo wines, and has become a regular guest lecturer at the Culinary Institute of America. At home, he cooks mostly for himself and his faithful canine companion, Babe, and occasionally for his personal assistant Lynne Richardson.
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