The Bunker Series

Welcome to the Bunker, an orderly, underground utopia where everyone's needs have been satisfied. As far back as he can remember, Terry Renfield has been digging up uranium ore in the mines and getting into the occasional drunken brawl. Until one daystretch on the Loyalty Stretch, he and the rest of the Bunker see someone who looks eerily like himself commit a heinous act of treason. Terry is fired on the spot. He turns to his girlfriend, Sally Xinhua, for help. Detained and then unexpectedly set free, Terry comes to realize that his misfortunes are no accident. His tiny, insular world shattered forever, he is determined not to be anyone's unwitting pawn – least of all his own. Sally pulls him into the orbit of more privileged citizens with security clearances – including Van Johnson, the host of Ten Things I Hate About Treason, and Felix Tubman, the head of Homeland Security. What follows is an unlikely adventure spanning the Bunker, the reaches of space, and the forbidding outside. Now the focus of a grand conspiracy to take down Control, the principal guiding force in the Bunker, Terry is ultimately faced with an identity crisis of epic proportions. Who is the real Terry Renfield? And what is it to actually be a specific person anyway?

Welcome (back) to the Bunker, an orderly, underground utopia where everyone's needs have been satisfied. Barney Max is a trustworthy citizen with an impeccable record of achievement. Having attained two promotions to Delta clearance, he has every reason to expect he'll advance higher up the ladder. After all, the Bunker is the perfect place to live. Overseen by Control, a fatherly (if at times overzealous) computer, only the worthy make it to the top while the social deviants are mercilessly weeded out. But one daystretch on his way to Mars for an interplanetary conference, he finds himself added to the Thousand Most Wanted List. For no apparent reason at all. And he's allowed to walk free. Thus begins Barney Max's unexpected and entirely unwelcome journey. Deprived of his daily comforts, chased by a persistent headache (not to mention armed guardians from Defense, a secret society of vengeful cybots, and an angry mob of former employees), he is forced to confront a reality he has struggled his whole life to deny. The second in the Bunker series of sci-fi adventure novels, Your Call Is Important To Us can be read independently, although it is best enjoyed in the company of its predecessor, Thank You For Your Cooperation.

Greetings, citizen. Your interest in Today's Edition has been noted by the authorities. By electing to access illegal, detrimental and highly subversive material, you have identified yourself as a traitor. Please turn yourself in to your Homeland Security neighborhood substation. Alternately, you may choose to stay where you are, and someone will be by to detain you shortly. Today's Edition does not exist. It has never existed. Rumors of a popular e-zine created by the Human Resources conglomerate and then spun off to the private sector for an outrageous amount of money are entirely false and should not be trusted. Likewise, no weekly publication in the Bunker was ever hijacked by traitors - repeatedly - as an instrument to achieve their own nefarious ends. Lastly, slander perpetrated against our most trusted and highly regarded citizens - those with an Alpha clearance - will not be tolerated. How exactly you came to possess knowledge of Today's Edition and where it might once have allegedly been published is surely one of the topics your interrogator will be fond of discussing with you. Why you would wish to spend your time passing on dangerous rumors and gossip is another. On that note, please be prepared to draw up a list of your fellow conspirators and which recent acts of sabotage, subterfuge, and calumny can be attributed to them. Thank you for your cooperation.

Angolina Reeves is a simple Ward of the State. In a yearstretch's time, she expects to graduate and become a full-fledged citizen. She will work hard, stay loyal, and if she's lucky one daystretch make it all the way to Alpha clearance. But in the Bunker – a utopian dreamland – disaster is never far away. And when it strikes, she finds herself trapped out in the dark. And so, together with an unhygienic smack addict by the name of Finian Flanagan and a mysterious stranger from the outside, she sets out to find her way back to civilization. Needled, cajoled, ramrodded, tormented, and bullied, Angolina is forced to contend with adults and in the process become one herself. But time is running out. For it isn't just cold and hunger that threaten her fragile innocence. Branded a traitor by Control, the Bunker's vast and all-knowing overseer, she must somehow redeem herself before it's too late.