Most Popular Books by Steve Pieczenik

2011: Atlantic City is packed with tourists, but the holiday atmosphere ends when an unarmed man turns into a human wrecking ball, tearing a casino apart with his bare hands and throwing cops around like rag dolls. It takes two dozen 9mm rounds to put him down. Suddenly there''s a new designer drug on the streets - a drug that can give you unbelievable strength and immunity from pain - and it''s being sold via the Net from addresses that are virtually impossible to track. If Net Force can''t break the producers'' security and destroy the supply at source, the world could be in for an epidemic of violence that will be literally unstoppable...

The return of the cutting-edge thriller series NET FORCE, created by Tom Clancy and Steve Pieczenik. The number-one threat to our nation''s security is in cyberspace. The new U.S. president wants to tackle the urgent problem head-on and launches a top-secret line of defense: Net Force. But before the organisation can be announced, the country is hit by an unprecedented, two-pronged terror attack. Not yet empowered by Congress nor embraced by a dubious intelligence community, still untested, unproven, and officially unnamed, Net Force''s elite group of cyber-experts and field operatives must lead the fight against the ongoing waves of hacks while tracking down the mastermind. Their failure could mean global catastrophe. Success may lead them to become the highest-level security agency in the United States. A thriller that seems ripped-from-tomorrow''s headlines, NET FORCE: DARK WEB relaunches one of the most prescient series at a time when cybersecurity is more vital than ever.

Suspense fiction. After years of handling some of the world''s most dangerous international crises, Paul Hood is about to step down from his position of director at the Op-Centre - only for the latest crisis to erupt much too close to home.

By 2011 the Internet has become the world''s central nervous system. If terrorists are going to subvert the new world order, this is where they will strike. Net Force is the new organisation to deter them - a team of highly trained operatives whose homeground is the Virtual Reality world of the Net, with the Net Force Strike Teams at the ready to take the battle into the realworld. When a top-secret cargo train carrying materials for Pakistan''s nuclear weapons programme is destroyed by mercenaries, it''s the first of a series of incidents in which supposedly bullet-proof encrypted information is stolen and deciphered. Someone, it seems, has got hold of a functioning quantum computer - a computer so powerful it has the potential to develop a consciousness. If Net Force don''t track the perpetrator down, his demented scheme could re-draw the map of the world forever...

The Internet has become vital in protecting the world from terrorism and sabotage. The FBI''s Netforce Explorers is a group of computer freaks who help out when danger strikes. They discover a conspiracy within the virtual world of Sarxos - top players are finding themselves playing for their lives.

Terrorists are using the Internet to subvert the new world system.

In the newly unified Germany, old horrors are reborn. It is the beginning of Chaos Days, a time when Neo-Nazi groups gather to spread violence and resurrect bad dreams. But this year, Germany isn''t the only target. Plans are afoot to destabilize Europe and cause turmoil throughout the United States. Paul Hood and his team, already in Germany to buy technology for the new Regional Op-Center, become entangled in the crisis. They uncover a shocking force behind the chaos -- a group that uses cutting-edge technology to promote hate and influence world events.

A half-dead Singapore pirate is plucked from the Celebes Sea in the Western Pacific, setting off alarms halfway around the world in Washington, D.C. Traces of radiation are found on the man, causing Australian officials to call in Op-Center for a top-secret investigation of nuclear disposal sites. When an empty drum from a recent drop-off is discovered near where the pirate''s ship was destroyed, the Op-Center team comes to a terrifying conclusion: A multinational corporation hired to dispose of nuclear waste is selling it instead-to a most unlikely terrorist...

Op-Center is the nation''s heart of intelligence and crisis management. Sometimes, it''s the only place our government can turn.

Maj Green''s obsession with virtual reality flight simulators looks like it could be about to pay off. Her latest Striper program is the best she''s ever designed - and she''s hoping to interest a packager at the gaming exhibition she''s attending. Until something extraordinary happens: putting the Striper through its paces in a final test-run, something appears in the sky that just shouldn''t be there: a huge dragon breathing deadly fireballs. Suddenly Maj finds herself playing a very different game - a deadly contest against an evil genius who thinks nothing of killing to achieve his ends.

Leif, Matt and several of their friends win the right to compete in a virtual rocket design and space race contest sponsored by the most popular space-based holodrama on the entertainment nets. The grand prize is a trip to Hollywood to compete in the final round of the race and the chance to appear on the holodrama. The winners of that final round will get some of the coolest computer stuff available. But some of the contestants - especially the team fielded by a Balkan pariah state and supervised by a sinister adult ''chaperone'' - are taking the competition too seriously. Leif and Matt end up lost in a deadly maze of dirty tricks, international espionage and the madness that is Hollywood.

It is 2011 and in the peaceful retirement village of Daru on the Chinese mainland, local police find themselves helpless when the elderly residents suddenly turn violently insane. Tests on the food and water reveal nothing and the Chinese government - along with the rest of the world - are left to ponder on the implications of this bizarre group-psychotic episode. It is only when Net Force discover a top secret defence project has been compromised that the horrifying truth begins to emerge, and unless they can track down the traitor in time, a potentially devastating new super-weapon could be let loose.

Megan O''Malley''s buddy, Burt Kamen, is having serious difficulties with his family. When Burt suddenly disappears, Megan is relieved to hear that he is at Breathing Space - a virtual ''refuge'' run by a recognised charity that offers runaways a neutral space in which to talk with their families. But her relief is short lived when she discovers that the runaways are being secretly recruited as couriers by a ruthless criminal team - a team that views the couriers as disposable and who will stop at nothing to prevent Megan and her friends from ending their lucrative trade.

Alan Slaney, a brilliant fencing instructor, has designed the virtual reality fantasy realm of Latvinia. And when he asks his star pupil, Megan O''Malley, and her friends to help beta-test the sim, they love the thrilling character profiles the game-world provides. Until, that is, the fantasy becomes all too real. Latvinia is beginning to look less like a labour of love and more like the product of a dangerous obsession. Time is running short for the beta-testers: unless Megan can prevent reality submerging into the game-world, she and her friends may well be forced to assume their dual identities forever...

Julio Cortez is a legend among his friends in the Net Force Explorers for his feats of derring-do in virtual flight simulators. But now he''s in a real life or death dogfight. To get him out, the Explorers are going to have to break down the barrier between the real world and virtual reality.

Charlie Davis is worried about his buddy, Rick. Rick''s been hanging out in Deathworld - a punk virtual reality site - to get some space from his irritating parents. And disturbing numbers of Deathworld users have been committing suicide in high numbers. When Charlie asks Explorer, Mark Gridley, to hack into the medical records of the ''Angels of the Pit'', they find curious similarities - similarities that suggest a merciless killer is offering a brutal form of retribution...

Someone is leaking big business secrets onto the Internet, and Net Force Explorer David Gray''s investigation reveals a deadly band of cyberspies who use a new form of technology to tune into people''s thoughts.