One to the Nth Degree

It was many years ago that I happened to take an independent studies course just to get four credit hours toward my bachelors degree in political science. The university offered the course to give its students a chance to work with a professor in selecting a topic of mutual interest and to explore it in as much depth as possible in a 10-week period. I did not know then that the course would lead to a law degree, separate careers in law and journalism...and, eventually, to this book.

The professor assigned to me had an obvious passion for studying political philosophy and was inspiring. When he suggested we delve into St. Augustine's Middle Ages "Treatise on Free Will" and how it forever influenced Western Civilization, I was immediately intrigued. How did he divine that THAT was a subject of particular interest to me? As an upper classman, I was already planning on going to law school. And learning more about man's accountability for knowing the difference between right and wrong seemed like a good fit. The "boot camp like" study course helped me better understand the key debate that's still ongoing today. That is, can man really man control his own Fate? How does a Supreme Being's plan affect us, if at all? To what extent does it all just come down to one's Faith?

Well, it's the characters' struggle with those "Free Will versus Destiny" questions that is the backdrop for the political conspiracy story in One to the Nth Degree. It begins when a determined terrorist's plot to wage war against the West is slowly, but surely revealed to the U.S. government's national security forces...with the help of a Georgetown professor, who happens to be an expert on the role numerology has played in human affairs through the ages...including conspiracy codes. Already, dozens lay dead, the victims of home grown terrorists' nerve gas attack on a New York subway. And, more lethal attacks on this and other American and European cities appear to be planned. Professor Alexander Avalov finds himself an unwilling participant in the government's furtive manhunt to stop the planned mayhem. As the mad capped adventure unfolds on three continents, he will come to wonder whether the "family gift" he had always been told about was at work in him, too.

The readers will hopefully feel entertained, and perhaps be inspired a bit, in coming to their own conclusions as to whether the fictional events in the book were the result of the characters' predetermined Destiny, their free will, or both. Or, maybe something else...maybe touched by the hand of an Angel...or, the Almighty...however, the reader may conceive Him and Her.