Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Living… with psychic powers. Lyn views the universe in several dimensions, intersecting at angles knowable only to him. This view can be problematic for practical reasons, such as driving. For example, he crashes his car when practicing “cloudbursting” - dispersing clouds with one’s mind. Lyn does not take his psychic powers lightly; he has a responsibility to not waste them, to take them and use them as a force of good.
Profession… former soldier. In the 1980s, he trained at Fort Bragg under a highly classified program, code-named “Project Jedi.” The program, run by the venerable Bill Django, sought to create supersoldiers – “Jedi warriors” – who fought using alternative methods. “We don’t fight with guns. We fight with our mind,” Lyn explains. The New Earth Army, as Django dubbed them, sought to subvert the enemy using psychic techniques, such as invisibility and spying through “remote viewing.” According to one of his military friends, Lyn was the most gifted psych in the program, after Django.
Interests… his immaculate moustache, Glenlivet whiskey, the band Boston, yoga, and predicting coin flips (his record is 264 in a row). Lyn also used to love to dance to The Beatles growing up until his Dad told him to “stop being so queer.”
Relationship Status… single.
Challenge… carrying out anobscure mission he was assigned. He only knows the target is within 600 miles of Al-Qaim, Iraq. As his cover, he’s pretending to be a representative for Arkansas’ DeWitt Resources, a trashcan manufacturer that is looking to partner up with a factory in Al Qaim.
Personality… wacky and outrageous. He is very serious about his mission and probably wouldn’t call himself funny, but he and his facial expressions are fun to laugh at.
Get to Know him in...
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A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.
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Bizarre military history: In 1979, a crack commando unit was established by the most gifted minds within the U.S. Army. Defying all known laws of physics and accepted military practice, they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls, and—perhaps most chillingly—kill goats just by staring at them. They were the First Earth Battalion, entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries. And they really weren’t joking. What’s more, they’re back—and they’re fighting the War on Terror. An uproarious exploration of American military paranoia: With investigations ranging from the mysterious “Goat Lab,” to Uri Geller’s covert psychic work with the CIA, to the increasingly bizarre role played by a succession of U.S. presidents, this might just be the funniest, most unsettling book you will ever read—if only because it is all true and is still happening today.
