Last Word

First contact by a god with a chip on his shoulder, a single commandment, and an impossible deadline. An international conspiracy to destroy mankind by the close of business. Not your ordinary shift for NSA spook I. M. A. Lemming, who has a ringside seat because he’s spying on the U.S. President.

Turns out there is a god and a judgment day, but not exactly what anyone ever expected. At 7:00 a.m., god-time, a voice in their heads delivers the play book on life but warns every person on Earth that, unless he is satisfied, the human race will be annihilated in 12 hours. The voice claims to have pushed the first domino, which created the universe as an unintended consequence of an experiment gone awry, but says he’s had nothing to do with Earth or its inhabitants ever since. Until now. After monitoring the development of humans, he has decided he doesn't like how things are going, so he is offering one last chance to get their act together.

The timing is compelled by the irreversible pushing of the button on a doomsday device by members of a highly-placed, international conspiracy, who believe that by destroying the rest of humanity, they get to fly directly to heaven without having to go through the usual channels. Only he, the voice claims, can turn the device off. And he will do so only if the leaders of all the world’s governments agree to take steps towards reordering the political and social structure to assure the happiness of all of its citizens.
The events of the following 12 hours are reported by Michael, an NSA employee, whose job is to illegally record all White House communications by the President. We listen to America’s best and brightest in action, along with the commentary of Michael’s multiple-personality broadcasting team, which he is recording for the book deal he expects to make should the human race survive. Through Michael’s not-always-completely-reliable reporting and slightly-bent analysis, patterned after most professional communicators, we witness how well the family of man deals with this once-in-a-species opportunity to make the world a better place.

An intense thriller, with more twists and turns than a high mountain road. A thought-provoking meditation on the origin and meaning of life and the future of the human race. What’s not to love.