When a photographer is murdered while recording cargo being secretly loaded in Shanghai, Covert-One director Fred Klein is brought in to find the cargo ship, which is rumored to be carrying thousands of pounds of chemical weapons.

An ancient bomber conceals a devastating secret - a stunning Covert-One thriller from the master storyteller. On a desolate island deep within the Arctic, a scientific expedition photographs the wreckage of a bomber. It seems to be a relic from the Cold War - but a handful of insiders know that it is a Soviet Air Force biological warfare platform, still armed with weaponised anthrax. Covert-One's Lt. Col. Jon Smith leads a team to secure the site. But on the island they find themselves confronted with a traitor from within their ranks. Gradually they become aware that the ancient bomber conceals something else: a secret so deadly that it could trigger a Third World War...

A thrilling Covert-One novel, from the world's No. 1 bestselling international author. In the increasingly turbulent atmosphere of international politics, a once grassroots anti-globalisation movement has been slowly taken over by an underground radical anti-technology group fronted by a mysterious figure known only as Lazarus. All attempts to infiltrate the group have failed, and the intelligence agents involved have disappeared without trace. Now Lazarus is preparing to make his boldest move yet. Lt Col. Jon Smith is activated by Covert-One to bring his skills to bear in uncovering the truth behind the terrorists. For, unbeknown to the world at large, the Lazarus Movement is on the brink of setting in motion a deadly scheme that will risk the lives of billions and for ever change the nature of the world.

Robert Ludlum has been acclaimed as the master of .suspense and international intrigue. His many books have thrilled millions of readers, reaching the top of bestsellers lists the world over and setting a standard that has never been surpassed. Now, from the imagination of one of America's greatest storytellers comes Robert Ludlum's The Hades Factor--a thrilling new entry in the Covert-One series. A homeless man in Boston, an Army Major in California, and a teenage girl in Atlanta all die suddenly and painfully--each a victim of an unknown doomsday virus. For three days, a team of scientists is a U.S. government laboratory has been frantically trying to unlock the virus's secrets. When the leading researcher from that lab, Lt. Col. Jonathan Smith, returns from overseas, he barely survives a series of well-orchestrated attempts made on his life. By the time Smith eludes his pursuers and makes it home, he discovers that the virus has claimed its fourth victim, Dr. Sophia Russell--Smith's fiancee. Devastated and enraged, Smith quickly uncovers evidence that his lover's death was no accident--that someone out there has the virus, and the pandemic that threatens hundreds of millions of lives is no accident. But wherever he turns, Smith finds that some unseen force has blocked his quest for information. Not knowing whom to trust, Smith assembles a private team to search for the truth behind the deadly virus. While the death toll mounts, their quest leads to the highest levels of power and the darkest corners of the earth, as they match wits with a determined genius--and as the fate of the world lies in the balance.

A CIA operative hunting an escaped traitor uncovers something far more dangerous in this spy thriller by a New York Times–bestselling author. Charles Jay Tice was a spy’s spy—a legendary figure in the CIA, and the intelligence world in general, towards the end of the Cold War. But he was also a traitor, having sold secrets that seriously compromised the US for years to come. Since his conviction, he’s been kept under the tightest security in the tightest maximum-security prison. Until one morning, his cell is discovered empty—Tice has disappeared without even the hint of trace. Agent Elaine Cunningham is a “hunter,” assigned to find Tice quickly, before the rest of the world knows he’s gone. But she soon finds out that something is very wrong. This is more than just an impossible escape by a master spy—lurking in the shadows is a much bigger, deeper, and more dangerous conspiracy than an old spy’s last run for freedom.

The price we pay for today's fast-paced, always-connected life is often stress, anxiety, and depression. While drawing on ancient wisdom, Donald Altman embraces twenty-first-century brain science to create practical, everyday strategies for experiencing a less-encumbered, less-entangled state of being. These techniques reactivate natural abilities you already possess. The four keys for unlocking mindfulness are the body, the mind, the spirit, and relationships. Altman presents practices for turning each key toward contentment, confidence, and joy, including shifting our mental and emotional perceptions, inhabiting the body and its "sense-abilities," exploring spiritual connection, and tapping into the healing powers of community and relationship. Inviting and accessible to those new to mindfulness but comprehensive enough for more experienced practitioners, these powerful tools will help you transform your life from the inside out.

In a controversial and tumultuous filmmaking career that spanned nearly fifty years, Robert Altman mocked, subverted, or otherwise refashioned Hollywood narrative and genre conventions. Altman's idiosyncratic vision and propensity for formal experimentation resulted in an uneven body of work: some rank failures and intriguing near-misses, as well as a number of great films that are among the most influential works of New American Cinema. While Altman always professed to have nothing authoritative to say about the state of contemporary society, this volume surveys all of his major films in their sociohistorical context to reposition the director as a trenchant satirist and social critic of postmodern America, depicted as a lonely wasteland of fraudulent spectacle, exploitative social relations, and unfulfilled solitaries in search of elusive community.

An excellent COVERT-ONE thriller from the bestselling writing team - Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds. A fiery explosion shatters a laboratory building in Paris. Among the dead is Emile Chambord, one of the leaders in the global race to create a molecular - or DNA - computer. Unfortunately, Professor Chambord kept the details of his work secret, and his notes were apparently destroyed in the fire. Then suddenly US fighter jets disappear from radar screens for a full five minutes and there's no explanation; utilities cease to function; and all telecommunications abruptly stop, with devastating consequences. This is not the work of a clever hacker - only the enormous power and speed of a DNA computer could have caused such havoc. Covert-One agent Jon Smith flies to Paris to investigate. Following a trail that leads him across two continents, he uncovers a web of deception that threatens to reshape the world for ever...

In American cinema, films with multiple plots can be traced back to Grand Hotel in 1932, but the form was used only sporadically in subsequent decades. However, filmmakers of the 1970s and 80s, notably Robert Altman and Woody Allen, repeatedly employed complex narratives to weave sprawling stories in their films. Later filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wong Kar-Wai, Steven Soderbergh, and Paul Haggis embraced multiple plotlines, a device that eventually achieved mainstream respectability in such Oscar winners as Traffic and Crash. In the past two decades, more than 200 films utilizing some variation of this format have appeared worldwide. In Altman and After: Multiple Narratives in Film, Peter Parshall carefully examines films that feature various plotlines. Parshall asserts that although this form may lose some of the close psychological identification and forward drive of linear narratives, such films gain a corresponding strength by developing thematic relationships in the various story lines. In each of these chapters, Parshall examines a different example of the multi-plot form, such as network narrative and the multiple-draft narrative, demonstrating that the structure of each is central to their artistry. He also argues that these devices open up a variety of creative vistas, a strength that appeals to directors and audiences alike. Films studied in this book include Nashville, Pulp Fiction, Amores Perros, Code Unknown, The Edge of Heaven, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, The Double Life of Veronique, and Run Lola Run. A long overdue examination of this unique cinematic form, Altman and After will appeal to scholars, students, and fans eager to learn more about complex-narrative films.

On the dark waterside docks of Shanghai, a photographer records cargo being secretly loaded. He's brutally killed and his camera destroyed. Two weeks later on the dangerous high seas, the US Navy covertly tracks a Chinese ship rumoured to carry tons of chemicals to create biological weapons of mass destruction. The President cannot let the ship reach its destination - a rogue Middle East nation. But he doesn't want the navy to attack and board it either, because decades of negotiations with China have at long last yielded a landmark human rights agreement that China is willing to sign. Covert-One operative Jon Smith is brought in to find solid proof of what the Chinese ship is ferrying. Then an agent is murdered and vital evidence destroyed. Smith must find the truth about the ship, a truth that probes the deepest secrets of the Chinese ruling party...