After he is captured and brutally murdered by enemy combatants, Staff Sergeant Grayson Cole reawakens in a Virginia hospital room bearing none of the physical signs of the torture he remembers receiving or the fatal blow which ended his life. Did any of it actually happen, or is he losing his mind?
Over the course of his recovery, Grayson’s caretaker reveals the incredible details of his rescue and of the secret military experiment to digitize and transplant his memories from one body to another. But when Grayson learns that the experiment has failed — not just once, but repeatedly — and that decades have elapsed since his handler first attempted to debug his identity file, suddenly nothing he remembers, or thinks he knows, feels real. With the end of the experiment rapidly approaching, will he be able to solve the riddle of his existence? More importantly, will the truth free him from the metaphysical prison he seems unable to escape?
Recode: T.G.C.A. is both a hi-tech psychological thriller and a philosophical foray into the nature of existence.
The story comes with three alternate endings. A fourth is available through a link inside the book. Readers are encouraged to choose their favorite and to participate in an author-mediated discussion by developing their own ideas. Winning selections, to be voted on by readers, will be edited and published in a print version due out in the fall of 2013.
Saul is the specfic pen name of author Ken J. Howe, who writes in a variety of genres. He is a retired biotech entrepreneur with a PhD in molecular genetics and is a former combat medic.