The After Rafferty

Lance is stuck in a dead-end job with manipulative girlfriend Gladys. This all changes when Rafferty, an old childhood friend he hasn't heard from since high school, contacts him in a cryptic fashion. Rafferty is in trouble and is reaching out to him for help. Soon Lance is embroiled in a deadly cyber-world of information technology, AI, and computer simulations. His friend has disappeared, and Lance is hired by Rafferty's employer to find him. Has Rafferty been kidnapped? Is he dead? Involved in corporate espionage? Lost his mind? Turned criminal? Become a national security risk? Turned whistleblower hiding out in fear for his life? Boss Ethan, CIA agent Waneta, co-workers Oona and Tennessee, wife Bo, and private investigator Chase all have their own theories. Lance knows he is in way over his head. With a 2-year degree in computer operations and formerly employed in a call center, he is pitted against some of the most brilliant minds of his generation. But Lance has one thing going for him. His old friend Rafferty, perhaps the most brilliant of them all, has his back. So it is up to Lance to save the world from this new 'one ring of power to rule them all' that has been crafted in a modern 'Mount Doom'. To do that he will travel not only into the past to the year 1976, but also to the very end of spacetime to witness the destruction of the Universe. Or will he fail, as he has failed in every other endeavor of his life. But that was before Rafferty. This is the new era - the After Rafferty.