The Devil Colony: A Sigma Force Novel

I don’t want to give too much away, but I will reveal one.  Everyone has seen the Great Seal of America:  an eagle with outstretched wings, holding an olive branch in one talon and a bundle of thirteen arrows in the other.  But what do those two symbols mean:  the olive branch and the arrows?  War and peace?  No.  The true answer is startling and seldom mentioned.  The symbol of the arrows traces back to a figure many historians believe to be a lost Founding Father, one hidden from history but memorialized in the Great Seal of America by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
Who is this lost Founding Father?
It is an Iroquois chief named Canasatego.  He was a leader of the Onondaga nation, one of six Indian nations that eventually joined together to form the Iroquois Confederacy.  Chief Canasatego met with the early colonists in 1744, including Benjamin Franklin, encouraging them to join together for the common good.  At that gathering , Canasatego approached Franklin and gave him a gift:  a single feathered arrow.  When Franklin expressed confusion, Canasatego took back the arrow and broke it across his knee and let the pieces drop to the floor.  Next he presented Franklin with a sheaf of thirteen arrows tied together.  Canasatego attempted to break that bundle across his knee like before, but joined as one, they would not break.  He presented that bundle to Franklin, the message plain to all.  To survive and be strong, the thirteen colonies needed to join together, only then would the new nation be unbreakable.  The eagle in the Great Seal holds that same bundle of thirteen arrows in his claw as a permanent—if somewhat secret—honor to the wise words of Chief Canasatego.  And that’s only the barest hint of the secret history revealed in The Devil Colony.

Everyone knows Thomas Jefferson as the architect of the Declaration of Independence. Volumes have been written about the man over the past two centuries, but of all the founding fathers of America, he remains to this day wrapped in mystery and contradictions. He was both politician and scientist.

For instance, it was only in 2007 that a coded letter, buried in his papers, was finally cracked and deciphered. It was sent to Jefferson in 1801 by a colleague who shared a passion for secret codes. Jefferson was fascinated to the point of fixation on Native American culture and history. At his home in Monticello, he put together a collection of tribal artifacts that was said to rival museums of the day (a collection that mysteriously disappeared after his death). Many of these Indian relics were sent to him by Lewis and Clark during their famed expedition across America. But what many don’t know is that Jefferson sent a secret message to Congress in 1803 concerning Lewis and Clark’s expedition. It revealed the true hidden purpose behind the journey across the West.

In The Devil Colony, you’ll learn that purpose—and so much more about the founding of America. And it has nothing to do with freemasons, Knights Templar, or crackpot theories. The truth is as illuminating as it is disturbing.

I had a great fun researching this novel set in my own backyard (so to speak). For the past decade, I’ve been fielding questions from readers about setting a Sigma novel within the United States. But I knew it had to be the perfect story, a novel thrilling enough to justify coming home. I’ve been searching for that story for about five years, and when I finally discovered it, the book still took me a full two years to write. It’s one of the biggest and most shocking of my novels. It took me trekking across the country and back, from Washington, D.C. and Fort Knox out east, to Salt Lake City and Yellowstone National Park out west. I interviewed Mormon scholars, read scientific and historical abstract, and studied ancient petroglyphs. It is a story never told—but one that needs to be finally revealed after two hundred years of secrets.

The science in this novel addresses the next big leap in scientific research and industry. It can be summarized in one word: Nanotechnology. In a nutshell, it means manufacturing at the atomic level, at a level of one billionth of a meter. The nanotech industry is exploding. It is estimated that this year alone $70 billion worth of nanotech products will be sold in the U.S. alone: toothpaste, sunscreen, cake icing, teething rings, running socks, cosmetics, and medicines.

What’s the downside of such a growth industry? These nanoparticles can cause illness, even death. UCLA scientists have found that nano-titantium oxide (found in children’s sunscreens) can trigger damage to animals at the genetic level. Carbon nanotubes (found in thousands of everyday products) have been shown to accumulate in lungs and brains of rats. Also weird and unexpected things happen at this small level. Take aluminum foil. It’s harmless enough and convenient for wrapping up leftovers, but break it down into nanoparticles, and it becomes explosive.

It’s a new and wild frontier. There is presently no requirement for the labeling of nano-goods, no required safety studies of products containing nanoparticles. But there’s an even darker side to this industry. This technology has a history that goes back further than the twentieth century—much further. The Devil Colony explores those dark roots of this “new” science.

Rafael Saint Germaine came about because this story centers on old family secrets—and by old, I mean a family that can trace its roots to the Middle Ages. And in such aristocratic families—whose lineages are tightly bred—it is not uncommon to see genetic abnormalities crop up among their offspring: hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, and other congenital and birth defects. Rafael suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, which a defect in collagen production, leaving him thin-boned and prone to fractures. I wanted a character who compensates for his physical weakness by honing a sharp and cunning mind, one who can match wits with the best of the book’s heroes. In the end, he is one of the most challenging villains of any of my books.

I’ve always been fascinated with those moments in time where religion and history merge, where mankind’s path makes sudden turns. Being raised Roman Catholic, I was not that familiar with Mormonism, but a part of me always wanted to learn more. When I heard that dinnertime argument among a few of my Mormon friends, I knew this was a chance to educate myself and to begin an investigation that would lead me to such startling conclusions. I interviewed both devote Mormon and those who had abandoned the faith. I read articles by Mormon apologists and non-Mormon historians and geneticists. It’s been a fascinating journey—and I believe that what I learned will shock many readers.

Definitely. I’ve been living and breathing these characters for going on a decade. We’ve seen them grow, have children, face the challenge of balancing work with family, and deal with losses. While the Sigma team is chocked full of talented and dedicated people, they are still people with real-life challenges alongside the world-spanning adventures. In this book especially, those two worlds collide in a harrowing manner for one of my characters. To me, that’s what makes these characters feel so alive in my heart. They are not a static team who run into adventure after adventure. Instead, they change, they mature, they get life-altering injuries—and yes, they also die. It’s that fragility, that mortality, that breathes life into a character.

I did. It was a great honor to be invited to participate in Operation Thriller. I got a chance to visit and thank the wounded warriors at Bethesda and Walter Reed military hospitals—then flew off to Kuwait and Iraq to visit bases throughout the Persian Gulf. I was able to experience a sliver of life out there: from wearing thirty-pound flak jackets while boarding C-130 transport planes to sharing stories with fire-fighting crews, explosive ordnance disposal units, and the teams that control unpiloted drones. And so much more. It was a life-altering experience, one I will cherish always.

I’m currently working on the third book in my middle-school series, featuring boy-explorer, Jake Ransom, and of course, the next Sigma novel, which picks up right after this novel’s shocking ending. And if that’s not enough, I’m also finishing up a brand-new secret project, the first of a trilogy. So there is much more mayhem to come!