Veteran Welder

Ever since Master Gunnery Sergeant Fick came blitzing out of nowhere in Maximum Violence (Arisen, book 4), he has emerged as the closest thing to a consensus fan favorite character for the series. He is best known and most beloved for his ribald, profane, merciless, and generally hilarious insults, quips, and bon mots, which are so characteristic that listeners have affectionately dubbed them: Fickisms.

Already cited on the floor of Congress and discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a book all Americans should read, One Second After is the story of a war scenario that could become all too terrifyingly real. Based upon a real weapon - the Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) - which may already be in the hands of our enemies, it is a truly realistic look at the awesome power of a weapon that can destroy the entire United States.

Against the backdrop of worldwide, unexplainable natural disasters, Dr. Virginia Marilyn Edwards (Emmy Award-winner Kerry Washington) seeks out Agent Scott Thomas (Emmy Award-winner Laurence Fishburne) at a secretive government headquarters. Virginia claims these events are signs, and unless Agent Thomas helps her, she believes things will only get worse. Her desperation is dialed up higher with a shocking proclamation as she stands before him pregnant, weak, and weary: “Agent Thomas,” she says, “I believe I am Mary.”