Point of Presence

After the woman he secretly loves vanishes, leaving behind only a mysterious encrypted flash drive, Tom Corcoran senses his three-year, self-imposed exile in the New Mexican desert is coming to an end. But when, on the banks of the Rio Grande River, he's ambushed by gunmen demanding the flash drive, Tom barely escapes with his life. In the bloody aftermath, as bodies start to pile up, Tom heads back to New York vowing to find the woman he's never stopped loving, unaware that he's now at the center of a diabolical cyber plot orchestrated for profit, power... and revenge.

Tom Corcoran has spent the last three years in the isolation of the New Mexican desert trying to put the memory of ex-flame Kelly Ulrich behind him. A single phone call brings her charging back into his life. Her marriage to an eccentric but brilliant computer scientist is disintegrating, and she reaches out to Tom, desperate to escape her husband and New York, even if it's just for a few short days. When Tom meets Kelly's flight, she's not on it. She's vanished without a trace. Yet within hours, Tom receives a FedEx from Kelly containing only a computer flash drive and a cryptic note requesting that he keep the drive safe until she arrives. Concerned and confused, Tom waits, hoping for word of her. But when, on the banks of the Rio Grande River, he's ambushed by gunmen demanding the flash drive, Tom barely escapes with his life. In the bloody aftermath, as bodies start to pile up, Tom heads back to New York vowing to find the woman he's never stopped loving, unaware that he's now at the center of a diabolical cyber plot orchestrated for profit, power... and revenge.

Rick was inspired to write Point of Presence after working for almost a decade in the network security industry. He has an undergraduate degree from New Mexico Tech and a masters in history from the University of Colorado. He is the author of the award-winning nonfiction book Coal People: Life in Southern Colorado's Company Towns, 1890-1930, currently in its third printing and winner of the 2001/2002 Leroy R. Hafen award, which is given by the Colorado Historical Society to the best monograph published over a two-year period. Rick grew up on Long Island and lives in Denver, Colorado, where he's currently working on the follow-up to Point of Presence.