World War II has ended leaving the world forever wounded. Now a cold war brews between the two remaining superpowers: the United States and the capricious Soviet Union. An unprecedented deal is struck: five mysterious youths, rumored to have been liberated from a unnamed German clinic, are traded for two Russian spies . . . neither side comprehending the unimaginable value in the exchange.
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In New Mexico, the prestigious Los Alamos National Laboratories enlists five new scientists. They are teenagers—mere children among the most brilliant adult minds of the day. Ridicule is quick to assault the strange foreigners . . . but not for long. Their genius is undisputed, and the young team soon become the new golden children—the envy of all the Los Alamos elite. Yet things are not as they seem. Deceit is rife, and it is soon discovered that military agendas have replaced humanitarian objectives. But before “The Five”—a name coined by their Los Alamos colleagues—can react, a horrific accident claims their lives—their bodies unrecoverable. It is a devastating setback for the United States Military . . . but not all are convinced; and once again, things are not as they seem.
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Decades pass and the world tips dangerously towards nuclear confrontation. Then, in the middle of Utah’s desolate salt desert, something extraordinary appears on the west horizon. Seemingly overnight, a fantastic modern estate towers from the bleached and dead sands. Locals soon coin the lavish structure, “Sandcastle”, and she becomes a desert icon. But who lives within her impenetrable gates; her high walls and elusive grounds? And why such an opulent structure amid the seclusion of the deadest lands on earth?
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Two kids, Jessie and Sam Goodwin, find themselves in Utah State custody after their parents are killed in a tragic accident. Things seem beyond bleak. But when a fantastically wealthy woman—claiming to be their great-grandmother—makes a phone call, everything changes. Using her influential strong-arm, the old woman lands the pair at the mysterious Sandcastle Estate. It is a place of acceptance and beauty beyond their dreams. But why are they there? And why had they never been told of this woman’s existence?
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Not far from the mysterious Sandcastle sanctuary, Brant Stephens—a confirmed bachelor and part-time professor—finds himself investigating the strange weather phenomenon taking place within the West Desert: burned-out transformers, strange electrical storms, and even aircraft flying overhead at thirty-thousand feet feel the breath of . . . something. He decides to stay in the sandy oven for one last summer, collecting data with his self-enhanced weather equipment. It will be a decision which will change his life forever. For before the curious professor sees the end of summer, he will join ranks with a forgotten high-school sweetheart, Teresa Henington; discover his elusive desert nemesis; and be hurled into the realm of Sandcastle Estate, and the mysterious people she protects.
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“But Gracie? How do you undo . . . knowledge?”
“You cannot, dear child. For more devastating than all which nature can aspire, comes an unsuspecting weapon: knowledge, given premature. For truly, without the span of time to develop and advance naturally; to purge that intrinsic thirst for conquest and supremacy; all equations solved, and all solutions known, are as matchsticks in the hands of babes. And humankind will burn themselves into extinction in the complacency of their stolen intellect . . .”
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