D. Meckanic

With Malice and Forethought: a Novel Based on Real Events D. Meckanic

How do you define experiences that are patently obscene, in a world where life is valued at the cost of a bullet or a used tire full of gasoline?

Let me tell you it's not an easy task. Dave has been through the proverbial 'mill' and he's found that it really doesn't matter which country you are in, either, they're all the same. Presidents and prime ministers all have agenda's and most seem willing to do just about anything to keep their dirty little secrets contained. Their 'actions' range from simple 'surgical' killings to blowing up plane loads of innocent people and they always cover their tracks, as in the case of the Helderberg, in November of 1987. Of course some countries are a little more covert and devious, they keep better spin doctors on hand to divert and wipe away the facts. They just delay the inevitable and the truth takes a little longer to come out, but eventually it does.

Dave was swept up into a situation in South Africa that he could have never predicted. The weapons, the killings, the mass murder, they were all too much for him to take, so after a number of years in the 'killing fields' he gave up. He couldn't take closing his eyes anymore, his conscience always posted a new pair of dead ones on the screens of his eyelids. Being an engineer in charge of the security of military bases and borders, he was an asset the government didn't want to lose. When he decided to finally leave Armscor and then South Africa, he turned however, from asset to liability in a heartbeat and was almost killed alongside 258 passengers on a commercial airliner in Europe while on his way back to Canada.

Once back, Dave ran his own little R&D business and his life began to normalize. Then he had the misfortune of becoming involved with a large company that had their own agenda... whose owners were adept at manipulation and extortion. They walked a 'new' woman into his life to distract Dave from his partner's slowly unfolding plans. When he finally focused on their scheme to defraud the government and stock market, he refused. So, his partner's and the lawyer for the company, oppressed him as a shareholder. Eventually, an illegitimate agreement was drawn together and they settled out of court, but his partner's breached eight months later. After the breach of the settlement agreement, his partner's tried to obtain government grants through universities using Dave's technology and intellectual property. He found out quickly just how corrupt our government and educational institutions could be, and how the only difference between South Africa and Canada was physical location and size. What follows are the battles to regain what was once his, including his sanity.