The Eighth Day
by Tom Avitabile
As "The Eighth Day" opens, a series of bizarre and seemingly unrelated homegrown terrorist attacks are plaguing the nation -- a chemical engineer sets in motion a horrendous explosion killing hundreds of commuters and himself. Hollywood's hottest sex symbol assassinates a sitting Senator. A grandmother stages a sophisticated attack on a train causing massive damage. An airplane full of Silicon Valley's brightest is blown up while refueling. A series of random, deadly events or the unlikely start of an insidious new terror wave? Add to that the suspected tampering with a Presidential election, the use of the Navy's nuclear tipped rockets against California, the collapse of the stock market from within, and the ultimate "merging" of Hollywood and politics and you've got an incendiary mix that explodes across the pages. From the moment Science Advisor to the President William "Wild Bill" Hiccock sticks his foot in his mouth and is tasked with identifying and stopping the threat, he becomes the target of the "established" law enforcement agencies. While watching his back and watching out for the bad guys, he assembles a ragtag group of "out-of-the-box" thinkers-a famous novelist, a retired Navy Admiral, a wise-guy computer hacker sprung from federal prison, and his ex-wife, a leading behavioral psychologist-who must identify and destroy their elusive adversary who always seems to be a step ahead.