A major new novel by the author of three classic international thrillers, The Gain Conversion is a multi-layered narrative of intrigue, revenge and retribution - and of a man at war with his own mind and the forces that would use him to disrupt the world's delicate new balance.A presidential assassination plot concocted in the Khrushchev era - and subsequently buried in KGB files - wreaks havoc in the new Russian Republic, the United States and uniquely in the mind of "Bill Sullivan," the American secret-service agent that is completely unaware of the plot, yet is its key component. Sullivan, as it turns out, has a psychiatrically engineered dual personality, his American identity having been meticulously implanted in his mind since birth. He was literally bred to join the Secret Service's Protective Detail, where he would always be close to the U.S. president, and, if necessary, his core personality could be activated - dubbed the "rising of Cain" by the project's director.Now an embittered former KGB operative attempts an activation, but the American persona has become entrenched and triggers a series of bizarre episodes that leave Sullivan, now rational, thinking he is insane. Richard Aellen's mastery of character and plot is extraordinary as Sullivan embarks on a journey of self-discovery that takes him first to his "hometown" in Kansas, where he learns he is not who he thinks he is, then to Moscow and beyond for a confrontation with his creators - and a harrowing conclusion, as unexpected as it is ingenious, that will linger in readers' minds long after the last page has been turned. Read Less