Digging Around the Pandemic: The SwiftPad Extinction

by S. Lee Barckmann

Overview

Digging Around the Pandemic: The SwiftPad Extinction, the riveting and concluding volume of the SwiftPad Trilogy, follows the last months of an election in a country that balances precariously on the knife edge of Civil War. After the Insurgency's defeat of the Incumbent's storm troopers in Portland, a desperate international struggle plays out behind the scenes and in plain sight on the ubiquitous social media platform SwiftPad. Follow the Insurgents as they retaliate against the Incumbent's reprisals, while fighting for the hearts and minds of an increasingly fragmented electorate. Meanwhile Kip Rehain, SwiftPad founder, seeks his former lover and business partner GG, by slowly making his way into the heart of the Leviathan, where nature conspires with mega-hackers and a mysterious disease to bring all of us into the next stage of existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781735251462
Publisher:	Lee Barckmann
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Series:	Swiftpad Trilogy , #3
Edition description:	Swiftpad Saga ed.
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

Born and raised in the small Jersey Shore town of Barnegat NJ. Parents, Doris (Jones) and Bill Barckmann, both deceased. Two sisters, Liza and Laura. Moved to North Jersey suburb at 13 (1964). Went to University of Kansas, graduated (1973), degrees in Economics and History. Planned to be a writer, wrote much of the backstory later incorporated into the The SwiftPad Series. Worked in various capacities as laborer, heavy equipment operator, became a Land Surveyor (1977). Worked in a Civil Engineering office, managing business. Wrote articles, grant writer of social service agency, involved in local politics, Progressive election mechanic (Eugene Oregon). Went to China, (1984) as English teacher in Xian Medical college. The following year I moved to Beijing to teach at Foreign Language Institute. Returned to the US (1987), married Mary Traeger, son Zach born (1988). Started a career in IT in a strip mall Computer store. Worked for various companies and organizations as technical lead in various IT specialties, (networking, software development, computer security, systems management) Retired from IBM (2014). Presently full time author

Table of Contents

Prologue

Cadez and his campaign braintrust escape from Portland....................................1

Maggie, Nate, and Sequoia head south to the Rehain Compound ..................... 8

Chubby and Aldane fly to Memphis ................................................................... 25

Alison meets rightwing wonks in Salt Lake City ................................................. 36

Maggie and Sequoia welcomed to Compound, Nate meets Alice ..................... 48

Chubby meets Tiara, a leader of the Memphis Resistance ............................... 53

Chubby driven to Vandalia by Illinois Resistance ...............................................63

Chubby in Vandalia meets Hester and Elwood .................................................. 71

Alison flies into Dallas, meets Spence,experiences C2B.....................................83

Kip tells Elwood, Arkie, and Hester how he killed assassins..............................100

Arkie, Elwood, and Hester leave Vandalia and Chubby heads for the unknown.122

Alison gets to Cape Girardeau and is introduced to the Assistant DA............... 127

Hank testifies how he met Chubby and helped him escape.............................. 134

Elwood and Arkie arrive at Rehain Compound.................................................. 148

Alison meets Aldane in Cape Girardeau; Ishpeming gets involved................... 163

Escape on Highway 61...................................................................................... 192

The election becomes more - or maybe less - complicated............................. 196

Erick Duke, mercenary, meets his troops in Newport, Oregon.......................... 201

Chubby heads for Asia.......................................................................................211

Elwood and Paula grow Fungus in the Oregon rainforest................................ 229

The Mercs plan their assault............................................................................. 231

The house by the lake wasn't worth it................................................................233

Arkie teaches Sequoia about his brainstorm.................................................... 248

Chubby travels west through Siberia.................................................................254

Disaster at the Rehain Compound....................................................................260

Last train out of Omsk.......................................................................................268

Refugees from the Compound return to Portland............................................ 272

Bulgakov at the Ponds of the Patriarch............................................................ 278

Chubby meets Nikoloz at Lubyanka..................................................................284

Operation Floodgates........................................................................................288

Pleasant train ride leads to a shock for Chubby................................................290

Chubby and Milana reconnect over a simple meal.......................................... 297

Elwood brings in a Fungus crop; Wally pops up most opportunely .................303

At Akhmatova Museum, Kip and Walter come to terms...................................311

Floodwaters rising........................................................................................... 319

Chubby hints at a swap; from Finland Station................................................. 323

Editorial Reviews

Barckmann shifts tone quite comfortably moving from standard mystery to Sci fi satire, magical realism and political allegory. Most significantly, Barckmann is interested in mining the ample vein of antagonism that runs through our country today, examining that conflict from all sides through the lens of rich versus poor, technology versus nature, and imagination versus reality.

Red City Review

From the Publisher