Martial Law (35 page)

Steven Sargent
– younger brother of Sarge. He is a graduate of United States Naval Academy and former platoon officer of SEAL Team 10. He is currently a contract operative for Aegis Security—code name NOMAD. He resides on his yacht — the Miss Behavin’. Steven is romantically involved with Katie O’Shea.

Julia Hawthorne
– descendant of the Peabody and Hawthorne families. First female political editor of The Boston Herald. She is the recipient of the National Association of Broadcasting Marconi Radio Award for her creation of an internet radio channel for the newspaper. She is in a romantic relationship with Sarge and lives with him at 100 Beacon.

The Quinn family
– Donald is the self-proclaimed Director of Procurement. He is a former accountant and financial advisor who works directly with John Adams Morgan. He is married to
Susan Quinn
with daughters
Rebecca
(age 7) and
Penny
(age 11). Donald and Susan coordinate all preparedness activities of The Loyal Nine. They reside in Brae Burn Country Club in Boston.

J.J.
– born John Joseph Warren. He is a direct descendant of Doctor Joseph Warren, one of the original Sons of Liberty. The Warren family founded Harvard Medical and were field surgeons at the Battle of Bunker Hill. J.J. was an Army Battalion Surgeon at Joint Base Balad in Iraq. While stationed at JBB, J.J. saved the life of a soldier who was injured saving the lives of others. He later became in a relationship with former Marine Second Lieutenant Sabina del Toro. He finished his career at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Jamaica Plain, where he also resides. He is affectionately known as the Armageddon Medicine Man.

Katie O’Shea
– graduate of the United States Naval Academy who trained as a Naval Intelligence officer. After an introduction to John Adams Morgan, she quickly rose up the ranks of the intelligence community. She now is part of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. She resides in Washington, D.C. Katie is romantically involved with Steven Sargent.

Brad
– born Francis Crowninshield Bradlee, a descendant of the Crowninshield family, a historic seafaring and military family dating back to the early 1600’s. He is the battalion commander, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, of 1
^st
Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment based at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Their nickname is
Cold Steel Warriors
. He is an active member of Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.

Abbie
– Abigail Morgan, daughter of John Adams Morgan. She is the first term United States Senator from Massachusetts. Elected in 2008, she is politically independent, with libertarian leanings. She resides in Washington, D.C. She has been chosen as the running mate of the Democratic nominee for president.

THE BOSTON BRAHMIN:

John Adams Morgan
– lineal descendant of President John Adams and Henry Sturgis Morgan, founder of J.P. Morgan. Morgan attended Harvard, obtaining a master’s degree in business and a law degree. Founded the Morgan-Holmes law firm with the grandson of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Among other concerns, he owns Morgan Global, an international banking and financial conglomerate. Extremely wealthy, Morgan is the recognized head of The Boston Brahmin. His inner circle consists of Walter Cabot and Lawrence Lowell.

Walter Cabot
– direct descendant of John Cabot, shipbuilders during the time of the Revolutionary War. Wealthy philanthropist and CEO of Cabot Industries. He is part of Morgan’s inner circle.

Lawrence Lowell
– descendant of John Lowell, a Federal Judge in the first United States Continental Congress. Extremely wealthy and part of Morgan’s inner circle.

Paul and Millicent Winthrop –
Descendants of John Winthrop, one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, their family became synonymous with the state’s politics and philanthropy. The Winthrops and Sargents became close when Sarge’ grandfather was Governor of Massachusetts, and his Lieutenant Governor was R. C. Winthrop. The families remained close and became a valuable political force on behalf of The Boston Brahmin. They have a French bulldog called Winnie the Frenchie.

Arthur and Estelle Peabody –
Dr. Arthur Peabody is a plastic surgeon in private practice. He is the youngest of the Boston Brahmin at age fifty-five. His wife is Estelle, affectionately called Aunt Stella. They are Julia’s Aunt and Uncle. They are direct descendants of the Hawthorne and Peabody lineage.

ZERO DAY GAMERS:

Andrew Lau
– MIT professor of Korean descent. A brilliant mind that created the Zero Day Gamers as a way to utilize his talents for personal financial gain.

Anna Fakhri
– MIT graduate assistant to Professor Lau of Arabic descent. She prides herself on her “internet detective work”. She speaks multiple Arabic languages.

Leonid “Leo” Malvalaha
– MIT graduate assistant to Professor Lau of Russian descent. He is very adept at creating complex viruses, worms, and Trojans used in cyber attack activities. He speaks fluent Russian.

Herm Walthaus
– newest member of the Zero Day Gamers. MIT graduate student. Introverted, but extremely analytical. Stays abreast of latest tools and techniques available to hackers.

AEGIS TEAM:

Nomad
– Steven Sargent.

Slash
– Drew Jackson. Former SEAL Team member who worked briefly the private contractor firm—Blackwater. Born and raised in Tennessee where his family farm is located. He has excellent survival skills. He is currently assigned to Senator Abigail Morgan’s security team and heads her Secret Service detail.

Bugs
– Paul Hittle. Former Army Special Forces Medic, who left the Green Berets for contract security work. He owns a ranch in East Texas, provided to him as compensation for his service to Aegis.

Sharpie
– Raymond Bower. Former Delta Force, who now operates a lucrative private equity fund venture with former classmates from Harvard. He resides in New York City.

OFFICERS OF 1
^st
BATTALION, 25
^th
MARINE REGIMENT

Gunny Falcone –
Master Gunnery Sergeant Frank Falcone. Under Brad’s command for years. A Loyal member of The Mechanics. Stationed at Fort Devens. Primary on base recruiter of soldiers to join The Mechanics.

Chief Warrant Officer Kyle Shore
– Young. Expert in sniping. Recorded two kill shots in Afghanistan at just over 2,500 yards. Stationed at Fort Devens. Also recruits members of The Mechanics.

First Lieutenant Chin Gibson
– Boston native. A Loyal member of The Mechanics.

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:

Malcolm Lowe
– John Morgan’s trusted assistant. Former undersecretary of state during Morgan’s tenure as Secretary of State. He
handles
sensitive matters for Mr. Morgan.

J-Rock
– Jarvis Rockwell, leader of the unified black gangs of Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan in South Boston. He rose to power after the death of his unborn child during a race riot in Copley Square in April 2016.

Joe Sciacca
– Boston Herald’s chief editor.

Sabina del Toro
– former Marine Second Lieutenant deployed to Iraq, assigned to the 6th Marine Regiment under the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune. The 6th was primarily a peacekeeping force deployed throughout the Sunni Anbar province, which included Fallujah, just west of Baghdad. Sabs, as she prefers to be called, was seriously injured protecting children from a car bomb blast. She lost her left arm and left leg as a result of her heroics. She is in a relationship with J.J.

Previously in The Boston Brahmin series

The Boston Brahmin series begins in December of 2015 and the timeframe of
The Loyal Nine
, book one in The Boston Brahmin series, continues through April 2016. Steven Sargent, in his capacity as Nomad, an Aegis deep cover operative, undertakes several black ops missions in Ukraine, Switzerland, and Germany. The purposes of the operations become increasingly suspect to Steven and his brother Sarge. It is apparent that Steven’s actual employer, John Morgan, is orchestrating a series of events as part of a grander scheme.

Sarge continues to teach at the Harvard-Kennedy School of Government. He begins to make public appearances after publishing a New York Times bestseller, Choose Freedom or Capitulation: America’s Sovereignty Crisis. During this time, he rekindles his relationship with Julia Hawthorne, who is also celebrating national notoriety for her accomplishments at The Boston Herald newspaper. The two take a trip to Las Vegas for a convention and become unwilling participants in a cyber attack on the Las Vegas power grid. Throughout The Loyal Nine, Sarge and Julia observe the economic and societal collapse of America.

The chasm between the haves and have-nots widens, resulting in hostilities between labor unions and their employers. There are unintended consequences of these actions, and numerous deaths are the result.

Racial tensions are on the rise across the country, and Boston becomes ground zero for social unrest when a beloved retired bus driver is beaten to death during the St. Patrick’s Day festivities. In protest, a group of marchers descend upon Copley Square at the end of the Boston Marathon resulting in a clash with police. The protestors are led by Jarvis
J-Rock
Rockwell, leader of the unified black gangs of Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan in South Boston. The protest march quickly got out of hand, and J-Rock’s pregnant girlfriend was struck by the police, resulting in her death and the death of their unborn child.

The Quinn family, Donald, Susan and their young daughters, are caught up in an angry mob scene at a local mall relating to the Black Lives Matter protests. Donald decides to accelerate The Loyal Nine’s preparedness activities as he gets the sense America is on the brink of collapse.

The reader gets an inside look at the morning security briefings in the White House Situation Room. Katie O’Shea becomes a respected rising star within the intelligence community while solidifying her role as a conduit for information to John Morgan.

John Morgan continues to act as a world power broker. He manipulates geopolitical events for the financial gain of his wealthy associates—The Boston Brahmin. He carefully orchestrates the rise to national prominence of his daughter, Senator Abigail Morgan.

As a direct descendant of the Founding Fathers, Morgan is sickened to watch America descend into collapse. Morgan believes the country can return to its former greatness. He recognizes drastic measures may be required. He envisions a reset of sorts, but what that entails is yet to be determined.

Throughout The Loyal Nine, the Zero Day Gamers make a name for themselves in the hacktivist community as their skills and capabilities escalate from cyber vandalism to cyber ransom to cyber terror. Professor Lau and his talented graduate assistants create ingenious methods of cyber intrusion. At times, they question the morality of their activities. But the ransoms they extract from their victims are too lucrative to turn away.

The end game, the mission statement of the Zero Day Gamers, is succinct:

One man’s gain is another man’s loss; who
gains
and who loses is determined by who pays
.

But who else loses in their deadly game?
Cyber Attack
, book two in The Boston Brahmin series, begins with the Zero Day Gamers testing their skills by taking over control of an American Airlines 757. Throughout
Cyber Attack
, conducting various hacker activities including compromising a nuclear power plant in Jefferson City, Missouri. But one of the Gamers, in an attempt to impress a young lady, makes a mistake. His cyber intrusion into the laptop of Abbie Morgan following the Democratic National Convention is discovered.

Meanwhile, over the summer, The Loyal Nine increase their preparedness activities. Through some legislative maneuvering, John Morgan acquires Prescott Peninsula at the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts. He immediately tasks Donald and Susan Quinn with renovating the property into a high-tech bug out location for The Boston Brahmin.

While Donald, Susan, J.J., and Sabs focus their attention on Prescott Peninsula, Sarge is making a name for himself on the speaker’s circuit as a straight talk libertarian. His relationship with Julia Hawthorne has grown, and they continue to observe world events with an eye towards preparedness.

After the hack of Abbie’s computer, through some excellent cyber forensics on the part of Katie O’Shea, the Zero Day Gamers are located and contacted by Steven Sargent and Malcolm Lowe, acting on behalf of John Morgan. The three orchestrate a ruse upon Andrew Lau and his team of cyber mercenaries for hire.

Morgan has determined that America is descending into collapse, both socially and economically, and is in need of a reset. The Zero Day Gamers are the perfect tool to accomplish this purpose.