America's Team

A Short Story

From the New York Times bestselling author of STORMING INTREPID and BLACK CIPHER comes AMERICA's TEAM, a premonitory tale of the NSA ripped from today's headlines in the post-Snowden world.
Payne Harrison, master of the techno-thriller and creator of the crypto-thriller, spins a sobering tale that is only too real in today's theater of high tech warfare.

In the wooded countryside of Maryland resides a massive installation that is the tympanic membrane of America’s early warning system. This is the headquarters of the National Security Agency, a secure facility within the confines of Fort George G. Meade. Here an army of engineers, scientists, cryptologists, and analysts probe the ether with their antennae and satellites -- to pluck out those transmissions that represent a threat to the American Homeland.

And at the apex of this elegant central nervous system lies the National Security Operations Center – the ultimate inner sanctum where the electronic wheat is separated from the chaff, and the kernels are then placed before the President, the Cabinet, and the Pentagon. 
Into this lion’s den enters Army Major Ross Jessup, who recently joined a select team operating with a hyper-secret charter from the Oval Office. Jessup is a hardened veteran, but is shaken when his past catches up to him within the high tech venue of the operations center. 

In BLACK CIPHER Payne Harrison created the new genre of the crypto-thriller, set within Government Communications Headquarters -- the British counterpart to the NSA. As noted by Publisher's Weekly, BLACK CIPHER is “Crackling with techno-savvy, this slick spy thriller . . . will keep readers turning its pages long past midnight.” And from Booklist: “What (Harrison) does masterfully . . . is illuminate the dark and arcane world of signals intelligence and code breaking. . . invites comparison with the novels of Tom Clancy or Frederick Forsyth.”

In AMERICA's TEAM, Harrison returns to the realm of signals intelligence -- where obscure transmissions from far away lands can have devastating consequences for the homeland.

Praise for the work of Payne Harrison

STORMING INTREPID
New York Times Bestseller

“Well researched and expertly written.”
-- New York Times

“Run, do not walk, to the bookstore.”
-- UPI

“ZOWIE! Storming Intrepid cost me a night’s sleep.”
-- Stephen Coonts
Author of Final Flight

THUNDER OF EREBUS
Main Selection, Military Book Club

“Thunder of Erebus succeeds above all as an action novel. Harrison's depiction of clandestine operations under Antarctic conditions and his narrations of the U.S. air attack on the Tbilisi and the Russian undersea riposte are masterpieces of combat fiction. No fan of the genre can afford to overlook this bombshell.”
-- Publisher’s Weekly

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Payne Harrison is a New York Times bestselling author. He has written a wide-spectrum of works including the popular novels STORMING INTREPID, THUNDER OF EREBUS, BLACK CIPHER, FORBIDDEN SUMMIT and EUROSTORM. His work has been called “expertly written and well researched” by The New York Times, and a “masterpiece” by Publisher’s Weekly. Thunder of Erebus was a main selection of the Military Book Club, and his works have been translated into nine languages.
A native Texan, he served with the United States Army in Europe and is a former newspaper reporter. He received a B.A. degree in journalism and a M.A. degree in political science from Texas A&M University, and a MBA from Southern Methodist University. He and his wife live in Dallas, Texas.