In two previous novels, "The Art Of Stretching" and "A Fickle Wind," Dirks detailed young Janzen's fascination with big balloons, "rat astronauts" and pictures taken high up from those very balloons. Now, years later, as an audio engineer, he is charged with bringing Nikola Tesla's invention to reality.
"Tesla," Dirks writes in the Prologue, "was arguably the most talented inventor of the twentieth century. Some say his genius rivaled Einstein's." Hidden away by the FBI, Tesla's Teleforce idea languishes "until someone, the right someone, at the right time, with proper understanding and authority opened the vault."
"Particle Beam (For Such A Time)" ($10.99 in paperback, self-published; also for Amazon Kindle) is the story of what happens at the (fictional) Hans M. Mark National Laboratory which houses the super-secret Teleforce Defense Weapon Administration and the "commanding, overbearing presence of its leader, Horatio Glen Knightsen."
"As my Marine Sergeant used to say as we prepared for action in the Mekong Delta," Knightsen tells his team, "you have been assembled for such a time as this." That translates into long hours and time away from family.
Janzen and a small group of compatriots frequently meet at a local watering hole and at Senior Engineer Joe Carson's place, where he is often in the company of his next door neighbors, Bunny and Sunny, mysterious and extraordinarily beautiful twins from Mexico.
The first part of the novel explores Teleforce's development and testing, but then things begin to go wrong. Janzen's friends find evidence that the project's secrets are being sold and, in the first chapter's flash-forward, Joe is arrested for the murder of Horatio Knightsen.
What is the truth? Is Joe a murderer? Has Providence assembled Janzen's friends "for such a time as this"? The compelling answer: Oh, yes.
