Bloodline (Sigma Force Series)

First of all, I wanted to honor these unique American heroes. Tucker Wayne is a former captain with the Army Rangers. After two tours of duty in Afghanistan, he leaves the service disillusioned after a bloody battle. Aided by members of his own unit, Tucker steals his war dog, Kane. Since then, Tucker has been adrift in the world with Kane at his side. After all he saw in Afghanistan, Tucker needs new horizons, new vistas, but mostly, he has a drive to keep moving. Tucker finds purpose when he and Kane run afoul of kidnappers who have taken the daughter of the U.S. president hostage.

What I liked best about exploring this pair's unique relationship is a phrase commonly used by military war dog handlers-It runs down the lead-describing how the emotions of the pair became shared over time, binding them together as firmly as any leash. And it's that bond and ability for the two to operate as one that I wanted to explore in this novel.

Can you tell us about your research into military dogs?

Research has always been an important element in my novels and even more so in Bloodline. The first recorded use of war dogs goes back to 4000 BC, when the Egyptians used them in battle. But the modern use of dogs in the U.S. military really started in WWI. Since then, dogs have become an integral part of the U.S. military-including the dog, Cairo, who was involved with the takedown of Osama Bin Laden.

About a year and half ago, I was lucky enough to participate in a USO tour of authors to military bases in Iraq and Kuwait. There, I saw several of these war dogs in action. I was also able to meet and talk to a veterinary school classmate of mine who works with the veterinary corps out in Iraq. After that encounter, it got me thinking about writing this book, of honoring these unique war heroes on the page.

You're also a veterinarian. How did your profession help you so viscerally portray the bond between man and dog on the page?

After three decades of working with dogs myself, I knew that I wanted to portray these stalwart war heroes as they really are-not just as soldiers with four legs, but as real dogs. In this book, there are scenes written from Kane's perspective. I wanted readers to experience what it's like to be a war dog-to be in their paws-to accurately capture how a dog perceives the world, how he functions in combat with his unique talents and senses.

In Bloodline you also raise the issue of children being used as soldiers, a hot-button topic also raised by the current manhunt for the African warlord Joseph Kony. What made you write about this sensitive issue in a mainstream thriller?

I believe a novel is made stronger if it touches upon the reality of our world. It's a tragedy that children have been brutalized and turned into soldiers by warlords in Africa, but it's also happening on other continents, too. Child soldiers can be found in armies around the world. Often they're hyped up on drugs and tortured into submission. They're forced to kill, even murdering members of their own family. And if they're not carrying guns, they're often used as suicide bombers, or for sex, or even to walk ahead of advancing armies to trigger any hidden land mines.

In Bloodline, my characters encounter several of these children, raising the question: how do you fight such an adversary? Or do you? One of my characters, Seichan, recognizes herself in these kids. She was taken off the streets as a teenager and turned into an assassin by a shadowy organization. This story offered a perfect opportunity to explore what it means to be a child soldier who has grown up. How do you balance such a past with the present?

Women play a large role in Bloodline. How are you able to write from the point of view of women so well?

I have three sisters who make sure I get those details correct, but also during my USO tour to Iraq and Kuwait, I got a chance to talk at length to women in the field-to hear what it's like to be a female in the armed services. And that's something I tried to capture accurately. In many action-oriented books, women are relegated to the role of arm candy for the hero or to function as damsels in distress. Not in my books. Here they fight and bleed alongside everyone else. And I'm always thrilled to hear from female readers who stumble upon my books and share letters or post comments on Facebook about how much they enjoy the stories, often because of the heroic and dynamic women featured in the novels.

Bloodline also shines a light on a disturbing and secretive marketplace that is functioning in plain sight, though most of us don't know it Can you tell us about that?

Everyone has heard about the black market, that world of clandestine negotiations and illegal transactions. But today, there is also a red market: a term coined to describe the wholesale buying and selling of of human organs. It's going on all around us. Some legal, much of it illegal. In Bolivia, murderers hunt down victims-not for the money in their pockets, but for the fat in their bodies, which is harvested and sold to European beauty supply companies. In China, prisons have become profitable body farms, turning inmates into a source for new hearts, kidneys, and corneas, all to be sold to the highest bidder. It is just such a marketplace that my characters stumble upon in Bloodline-one happening upon U.S. soil.

Your novels always delve into the cutting edge of science. What is the scientific basis behind Bloodline?

The root of this book came from a recent article in Time magazine. The cover declared: 2045, the Year Man Becomes Immortal. I read that and wondered how that could become true. Could immortality be achievable in our lifetime? It sent me into a yearlong and chilling investigation into the frontiers of life extension: scientific inquiries involving medicine, technology, and genetics. The research even delved back to the Cold War, to a frightening study done by Soviet scientists who were attempting to revive the dead-a study that still has ramifications today.

What are some of these new discoveries involving immortality?

I've learned that there are actually two competing schools of study when it comes to the search for immortality. On one side, scientists are looking at moving man into machines, moving our consciousness into a synthetic arena. Scientists in Switzerland right now are working with IBM to create the first virtual human brain and say they are about a decade off from achieving this goal.

On the other side of the scientific fence, researchers are also looking at moving machines into us: basically replacing our failing parts with artificial organs. We already have synthetic pancreases and mechanical hearts, and these scientific advancements continue to accelerate, especially with the explosive growth of nanotechnology, which involves engineering at the atomic level.

In Bloodline, I shine a light into both of those shadowy arenas-into some truly inspiring and scary realm-while also revealing an even more terrifying project, a third path to immortality, one tied to our own genetic code.

In Bloodline, you also delve into the morality behind the quest to live forever. Does morality have a place in scientific discovery?

How can it not? Scientific exploration regularly tests society's moral compass. Is human cloning good or bad? What about stem cell research? At every turn, the fringes of science test a society-morally, spiritually, and economically. And at the accelerating pace of such exploration, we are quickly outstripping our abilities to rein in our advancements or to adequately judge where that knowledge will take us.

Such questions are wonderful fodder for a thriller writer to explore. Because the true challenge of science and technology is not whether its cogs and wheels work, but how it will change us. And even more frightening . . . will we even have a voice in this next evolution?

Now to the last and most pressing question: How close are we to achieving immortality?

That's a good question-and the answer is the most startling revelation I discovered while researching this story, something I share within the pages of this book. In Bloodline, readers will learn a shocking scientific truth about the nature of mankind: That immortal beings already walk among us today.

If you want to know who they are, if you want to learn how to live forever-read Bloodline.