New Releases by Steve Pieczenik

Alan Slaney, a brilliant fencing instructor, has designed the virtual reality fantasy realm of Latvinia. And when he asks his star pupil, Megan O''Malley, and her friends to help beta-test the sim, they love the thrilling character profiles the game-world provides. Until, that is, the fantasy becomes all too real. Latvinia is beginning to look less like a labour of love and more like the product of a dangerous obsession. Time is running short for the beta-testers: unless Megan can prevent reality submerging into the game-world, she and her friends may well be forced to assume their dual identities forever...

It is 2011 and in the peaceful retirement village of Daru on the Chinese mainland, local police find themselves helpless when the elderly residents suddenly turn violently insane. Tests on the food and water reveal nothing and the Chinese government - along with the rest of the world - are left to ponder on the implications of this bizarre group-psychotic episode. It is only when Net Force discover a top secret defence project has been compromised that the horrifying truth begins to emerge, and unless they can track down the traitor in time, a potentially devastating new super-weapon could be let loose.

Andy Moore lost his father when he was just a small child. His father, a highly decorated Marine captain, died fighting in the South African War in 2014. A decade later, one of the kids at Andy''s school claims that Andy''s father wasn''t a hero at all, that he released an illegal biological weapon that killed 5,000 civilians. The kid has evidence that seems to prove it but what nobody knows is that he hacked highly sensitive information from the South African government archives and doctored it to make Andy''s dad look bad. And a slew of South African spies, willing to do anything up to and including murder, are about to descend on the school to get that information back...

Maj Green''s obsession with virtual reality flight simulators looks like it could be about to pay off. Her latest Striper program is the best she''s ever designed - and she''s hoping to interest a packager at the gaming exhibition she''s attending. Until something extraordinary happens: putting the Striper through its paces in a final test-run, something appears in the sky that just shouldn''t be there: a huge dragon breathing deadly fireballs. Suddenly Maj finds herself playing a very different game - a deadly contest against an evil genius who thinks nothing of killing to achieve his ends.

Andy Moore never knew his father, who was killed during the South African War ten years ago and proclaimed a hero. But now a rival student has revealed information that brands Andy''s father as the perpetrator of a massacre. As he struggles to find the truth about his father, bad things start happening at his school--things that put every student there at risk. It''s clear that Andy isn''t the only one interested in what really happened in South Africa. And if Andy doesn''t figure it out soon, it might just be too late...for everybody!!

In the year 2025 the Internet practically runs the world, and its virtual reality webwork has to be policed by Net Force to prevent computer-terrorists from sabotaging it. But sometimes they need help. Which is where the Net Force Explorers come in, the young people''s auxiliary for computer whizz-kids who have made it through a tough training programme. The ninth in Tom Clancy''s bestselling Net Force Explorers series is the most daringly inventive yet.

In the year 2010, computers are the new superpower. Those who control them control the world. To enforce the New Laws, Congress creates the ultimate computer security agency with the FBI: the Net Force. Instructions on how to make a bomb...a list of every U.S. spy in the Euro-Asian theater...Someone with access to classified information is posting it on the Internet-and it''s costing lives. Net Force Commander Alex Michaels is in the hot seat. Now, before a hostile Senate committee, he must justify the very existence of the Net Force. Meanwhile, a virus is unleashed that throws the federal financial systems into chaos. And the Net Force operatives must hunt the wily hacker through the twists and turns of cyberspace-down a path that leads them dangerously close to home...

Driven by greed, a group of U.N. peacekeeping soldiers becomes involved in activities on the wrong side of the law. When their tour of duty ends, the mayhem begins. Calling themselves the "Keepers," the rogue soldiers -- outfitted with stolen U.N. arms and ammunition -- devise a shocking scheme to get the world''s attention... Meanwhile, Op-Center head Paul Hood has cleared out his desk. But his retirement is short-lived. Demanding one hundred million dollars in ransom, the Keepers have taken over the U.N. -- where ambassadors from ten nations have gathered for a gala function at which Hood''s daughter will perform. This time the Keepers have made it personal. And the Op-Center forces will strike with deadly vengeance...

Here comes a Clancy first: a new series of novels for young adults starring a team of troubleshooting teens--the Net Force Explorers--who know more about cutting edge technology than their teachers!

By 2011 the Internet has become the world''s central nervous system. If terrorists are going to subvert the new world order, this is where they will strike. Net Force is the new organisation to deter them - a team of highly trained operatives whose homeground is the Virtual Reality world of the Net, with the Net Force Strike Teams at the ready to take the battle into the realworld. When a top-secret cargo train carrying materials for Pakistan''s nuclear weapons programme is destroyed by mercenaries, it''s the first of a series of incidents in which supposedly bullet-proof encrypted information is stolen and deciphered. Someone, it seems, has got hold of a functioning quantum computer - a computer so powerful it has the potential to develop a consciousness. If Net Force don''t track the perpetrator down, his demented scheme could re-draw the map of the world forever...

Julio Cortez is a legend among his friends in the Net Force Explorers for his feats of derring-do in virtual flight simulators. But now he''s in a real life or death dogfight. To get him out, the Explorers are going to have to break down the barrier between the real world and virtual reality.

Someone is leaking big business secrets onto the Internet, and Net Force Explorer David Gray''s investigation reveals a deadly band of cyberspies who use a new form of technology to tune into people''s thoughts.

Spain is a nation poised to suffer its worst internal strife in centuries. Certain well-placed Spanish diplomats sense it. Op-Center intelligence corroborates it. All the United States and Spain have to do is find a way to avert it. Before they can, an Op-Center representative is assassinated in Madrid on her way to a top secret meeting. Now all fears are confirmed. Someone very powerful wants another Spanish civil war--no matter what the cost.

The Internet has become vital in protecting the world from terrorism and sabotage. The FBI''s Netforce Explorers is a group of computer freaks who help out when danger strikes. They discover a conspiracy within the virtual world of Sarxos - top players are finding themselves playing for their lives.

Steve Pieczenik brings his extensive experience inside the halls of power at the U.S. State Department to create a frighteningly authentic novel of the ultimate crisis--an American civil war.

In the newly unified Germany, old horrors are reborn. It is the beginning of Chaos Days, a time when Neo-Nazi groups gather to spread violence and resurrect bad dreams. But this year, Germany isn''t the only target. Plans are afoot to destabilize Europe and cause turmoil throughout the United States. Paul Hood and his team, already in Germany to buy technology for the new Regional Op-Center, become entangled in the crisis. They uncover a shocking force behind the chaos -- a group that uses cutting-edge technology to promote hate and influence world events.

The Cold War is over. And chaos is setting in. The new President of Russia is trying to create a democratic regime. But there are strong elements within the country that are trying to stop him: the ruthless Russian mafia, the right wing nationalists, and those nefarious forces that will do whatever it takes to return Russia to the days of the Czar. Op-Center, the newly-founded but highly successful crisis management team, begins a race against the clock and against the hardliners. Their task is made even more difficult by the discovery of a Russian counterpart . . . but this one''s controlled by those same repressive hardliners and represents everything Op-Center stands for. Two rival Op-Centers, virtual mirror images of each other. But if this mirror cracks, it''ll be more than seven years of bad luck . . .

Op-Center is the nation''s heart of intelligence and crisis management. Sometimes, it''s the only place our government can turn.

A novel about an American agent sent to China during a period of tense relations between China and the United States.

Pieczenik (Blood Heat) is a world-famous international crisis manager, hostage negotiator, political psychiatrist, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State. Now his insider knowledge and experience come together in a thrilling political novel scheduled to be a major motion picture from Paramount.

A virulent new strain of bubonic plague has emerged- capable of killing every human on earth - a desperate search for a cure is underway-