This work is a continuation of the adventures of characters introduced in previous stories. In Day 183, (set in 1976) Pete Levindusky had resigned his commission as a Naval Officer to attend graduate school in Ft. Myers, Florida, and study fish behavior. There he met and married Dr. Sarah Roth (research chemist and daughter of Pete's thesis advisor, Dr. Harry Roth). Harry is a research botanist. Pete and Sarah were drawn into a smuggling case being investigated by FBI agents Brandy Bane and Bob Foreman.
The next two novels, Flight 885 and A Trip to Merida, follow the adventures of these characters as they investigate hijackings and drug smuggling cases. During these pursuits, they disrupted the operations of a powerful drug lord. The drug cartel became intent on killing Sarah, Pete, and Harry for revenge, forcing them into the witness protection program under the name Fitzpatrick. Weak Point begins five years later.
WEAK POINT is most assuredly NOT for everyone. Pete and Sarah arise from the obscurity of the Witness Protection Program to help the Secret Service and the FBI deal with the impending threat from global terrorism. Set in 1982, the threat is evident, but not specific to any one faction, group, or religion. What is clear is that bad people are doing more bad things almost daily.
In WEAK POINT, Sebastian paints a quite realistic picture of how countermeasures are actually developed. There is no flashy, sex-crazed, "double-Oh" character. There is no charismatic hero who single-handedly saves the nation. That's not how the real teams work. Teams like this are made up of normal men and women who, while perhaps gifted intellectually, remain mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, and friends who deal with potential acts of violence during the day and go home to play with the children at night. Even so, the potential threats they devise have been described as "Quietly Frightening."
