Third Eye Patch

Third Eye Patch by Kevin Donohue and Mark Lind-Hanson

THIRD EYE PATCH is a novel suitable for young adults, 16 years and up. Contains non-descriptive violence, sexual situations, and harsh language.

A high-tech thriller-satire set in present-day America, Europe, and Asia, Third Eye Patch is an odyssey of love, betrayal, self-discovery, innovation and wonder, set against the backdrop of a criminal takeover of the United States Government by shadow intelligence agencies and mega-corporations. Wait a minute, that can't happen here, can it? This is fiction, right? But sometimes fiction reflects our greater collective 'reality' – which opens up a new can of worms: What exactly is 'Reality'?

Third Eye Patch (3EP) was published months before the NSA revelations of Edward Snowden became the top story in 'mainstream news' in 2013, but many parallels do exist. In the fictional world of 3EP we introduced NASTY (The National Agency of Science and Technology), an unaccountable agency that will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, including staging 'terrorist' events. False flag operations are American as apple pie. 3EP's robot army horde is inspired by the all-too real robotics industry, not only in the private sector, but in the Pentagon. Camouflaged robots (pegged to take the place of flesh and blood soldiers) are already on the drawing boards of the think tanks and research institutes under contract by the United States Government.

Before the "Outernet" was an inspired suggestion, 3EP proposed the OtherNet and the YAK-1 Satellite. Before the drone program and the sanctioning of American citizens became headline news, 3EP regaled the reader with the "Nazgul" drone, a fictional counterpoint to the US Government's all-too real Predator drone strikes. And last, but not least, long before the head honchos of the six biggest high-tech companies were summoned to meet with President Obama, 3EP's fictional ComCo (nicknamed the Consortium, an inner-circle confederacy of cyberspace hot-shots and illuminati) was already in cahoots with the power-brokers and policy makers in the DC beltway. Is there anyone in the United States of America that is unaware that our business activities and private communications are all subject to instant corporate and government review, through internet access as well as cams, drones, and police surveillance, all in the name of 'National Security'?

The fictional Third Eye Patch does not exist as of yet, but implantable biomedical devices certainly do. Third Eye Patch is truly a novel of our times. Let us follow Mike Chen, Boffin Syznic, Jennifer Morgan, Guru Abbryggdd, and the rest of the Table Foundation as they struggle to bring forth an alternative in high-tech bio-medicine, and attempt to save the American people (and the rest of the world) from the corporate pharmaceutical industry and their partners in the US Government: The Great Eye in the Pyramid and the military-industrial-pharmaceutical-communications complex.

Mike Chen is a has-been inspirational writer and new age toastmaster, entering middle age. After being swindled in a shaky business deal resulting in bankruptcy, foreclosure, and the walkout of his longtime girlfriend (the beautiful but fragile Beta Bronski), Mike has come to the conclusion he is a fraud, and decides to announce it to the world in a comeback bid. At his father's funeral, Mike hooks up with his first wife, the notorious literary agent Jennifer Morgan, who takes him back under her wing, and offers him a job with The Table Foundation, the brainchild of brilliant 'outlaw' electronics billionaire, Boffin Syznic.

As Syznic declares to Mike, Jennifer, and the others in the inner circle: “Let us (the Table Foundation) make a difference in a new way, and in a new direction: Developing and rediscovering alternatives to our Culture of Dependence. Please note that I refer to dependence, which is a cause, and not addiction, which is a symptom.”

In a fit of inspiration, Mike proposes the Third Eye Patch, a meditative patch similar to a nicotine patch, that delivers a calming pulse, instead of added nicotine and other drugs. Boffin Syznic not only flips over the idea, he dispatches Mike to undertake a journey, a quest: The Search for the Lost Chord, or more accurately, the elusive melody that will be chosen as the algorithm for the meditative device: The Third Eye Patch!

Along with musicologist Steve Shank, one-time rock god and guitar-slinger, Mike's odyssey takes him from Athens, Macedonia, and Istanbul, to the Central Asian Republic of Tuva. The pair are shadowed by nosy reporters and shadowy assassins, because the word is out about the Third Eye Patch, which has many special interests, including mega corporation Perry Pharmaceuticals (PerryPharm), quite alarmed, because a meditative patch that promises, in the words of Boffin Syznic: "A life of optimal health and happiness for Humankind" is intolerable and unacceptable. This obscenity must be stopped right in its tracks, lickety-split! Needless to say, the dark forces cannot, and will not, allow this new technology see the light of day, at least in its present form and original intention as a healing application. Can the secret properties of this device be altered and used for military or mind control purposes? How about a non-pharmaceutical version of Viagra?

A shadow agency of the United States government, the National Agency of Science and Technology (NASTY), has been directed from above to get the Patch at any cost, and ruthless spymaster FW Piltdown is dispatched to the west coast where he recruits and brainwashes Mike's ex, Beta Bronski, to spy on the Table Foundation. Under the ruse of "National Security" Beta's mission is to acquire the Patch by any means possible, and pass its secrets on to PerryPharm, ComCo, and other corporations, to "maintain the balance of power." Will they succeed in suppressing the Third Eye Patch, or will Mike Chen realize his quest for the "betterment of humankind”, along with a “comfortable amount of cash!"

All of this, and more, is told in Third Eye Patch.

This new edition supersedes all previous ones and meets the complete approval of the authors.