Three years ago, brilliant student Steve Brinkley was dismissed in disgrace from M.I.T. and charged with numerous federal crimes for a naive mistake in judgment. It made national news for days. The charges were eventually dropped, but the damage had been done: no other reputable school would touch him. Eventually a small college in southern Illinois gave him a second chance and now he hopes to salvage his reputation by winning an engineering competition. Together, he and three other students create and patent a new manufacturing process which will undoubtedly revolutionize all manufacturing worldwide. But an ownership rights battle erupts. At the height of the controversy, one of the students is brutally murdered and the only suspect appears to be Steve. His only chance is to find the real killer before the authorities find him.
Tom Sylvester is a 1982 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Academy's Department of Astronautics and Computer Science.
He worked as a "rocket scientist" for the Air Force's Ballistic Missile Office, then later as a staff officer in Washington, DC, where he headed the Air Force's Parts Standardization Program for Air Force Systems Command and was the Air Force's representative to the Government/Industry Data Exchange Program.
Tom has over 15,000 hours of flying in his pilot log book. He is an airline pilot and holds three large aircraft type ratings. Over his flying career he has flown corporate aircraft, executive charters, organ transplant "life" flights, commuter/regional turboprop aircraft, and has thousands of hours of pilot time in aircraft such as the BAe-3201, EMB-120, DC-9, Boeing 757, Airbus A319/A320, Airbus A330 Widebody. He currently flies the Boeing 747 Jumbo jet all over the world.
Previously, he consulted with a Washington DC engineering firm and developed software for the aerospace industry, including Equity Claim coding for distribution of over $400M in bankruptcy claims to the pilots at his airline. He was also a member of the ALPA Merger Committee, providing data support for the largest seniority list integration in aviation history.
Tom holds a dozen software copyrights and his three novels (Amazon) are registered with the Screenwriter's Guild in Hollywood. A fourth novel, Bold Face, is nearing completion.
Tom is a partner with Cerventis, LLC, and head of the design team of the MusicJam portable mixer for the iPod.
Tom has two patents pending, one as a result of a project with the bioengineering department at NC State University.
An avid guitarist, he plays his BulletProof guitar (BulletProofInstruments) when no one else is around.
Tom is married with one daughter, who recently graduated from Harvard with a degree in Biological Sciences and is currently in medical school.
