Paul H. Raymer

Recalculating Truth Paul H. Raymer

What if there was an app for determining if people are telling the truth? On the surface, the truth is simple. It weaves its way through all human communications. It's in people's eyes, how they hold their hands, how they tilt their heads, and particularly in the position of their feet. It is also in how they put their words together, in the words themselves and the stress in their voices. The FBI and the Department of Defense and police departments use this knowledge to compel suspects to betray themselves. That's what GUS SAINTE wonders about when he returns from Guantanamo with the pain and terror of extracting information with water boarding engraved on his mind. He is determined to employ technology to find a better way to reveal the truth. It seems simple at first to electronically combine human 'tells' to uncover the lies. But as Gus and his team work against a financial clock to develop the device, they have to prove that it works and the results are surprising. He didn't expect that creating a technological, all-knowing, electronic Genie will reveal truths that embezzlers, terrorists, news anchors, and Supreme Court justice candidates would prefer to keep hidden. And when an old flame, the gorgeous Cyrene Al-Masri, mysteriously returns to his life he recognizes lies that are far more personal and dangerous and that truth can be a weapon that can kill. Recalculating Truth is a technological thriller in the genre of Michael Crichton and the psychological exploration of Walker Percy. The story weaves its way from the Spring of 2000 with the crime of the sexual harassment of BOYD WILLIS by his powerful, female attorney boss, DIAMON JAKES to a strip mall in Fayetteville, Arkansas where Gus visits an organization run by his former commanding officer from Guantanamo who will go to extremes to eliminate Gus's fledgling company. As Gus's team of experts develop and refine the technology, both the machine and the people creating it are tested as they seek to prove that there is a clear difference between the truth and the lie. By the time the machine reaches its ultimate test, Gus wonders if there really is a distinction and if lifting the private veil from human emotions is worth the price.