Born F.R.E.E

Ray Cunningham is one of the longest running, most successful serial killers on the planet. He also heads the FBI department in charge of hunting down America’s Most Wanted. Among the young agents he’s tutoring, will one of them be clever enough to catch him? And if so, will Ray be excused his bad habits in lieu of his success rate capturing the most lethal criminals?

As things heat up for Ray, they heat up for the beleaguered profiling department, as well. Underfunded, understaffed and facing hi-tech criminals that increasingly have them outclassed and outsmarted, and who respect no national boundaries, they make a desperate play. With the money-no-object tech wiz Ray is tutoring, Nick Young, they form a breakaway agency, SPY, INC., with international reach. SPY, INC. seems more interested, though, in recruiting the best of the best in mastermind criminals to work for them than they are in setting the world straight. Whatever their shadowy motives, it quickly becomes clear no one is equipped to go after the kinds of criminals these people go after, not even Interpol. With corporations and nation states increasingly indebted to them, their web of influence continues to catch up more and more free agents that used to operate under the radar. It’s not long before free thinkers and free spirits worldwide sound the battle cry. Their reaction to SPY, INC.’s overreaching is an agency of their own, aptly named F.R.E.E.

SPY, INC. and F.R.E.E. compete with each other for the best free agents in this first installment of the series. The hi-tech toys at the disposal of both agencies propel the kind of action that skirts the boundaries of hi-tech thrillers and sci-fi. As an added twist, Ray Cunningham and Nick Young are on a self-redemption kick. They have enough blood on their hands, and have tasted the dark side of power long enough to know that it’s no solution to their wounded psyches. You can’t stop being a victim by victimizing others. Going against their baser natures isn’t easy, but it might just mean that SPY, INC. is navigating into the light at the same time that F.R.E.E. is migrating into the darkness. As the series wends on, it’s left to be seen who the real good guys are in this tale, those who wear their monster masks on the surface, or those who keep those demons buried deep down.