Call a Spade — D.M. Griffin

CALL A SPADE is a tale of the silver buried beneath tarnish, of unlikely heroism, and of courage and resolve in the face of overwhelming odds.

Jasper never wanted to be a hero; Jasper just wants to be normal. But just as Jasper had no part in choosing how he would be born, he also becomes the unintentional recipient of an amazing and very dangerous gift -- a gift that only Jasper himself can decide how to use.

It is 2019, and Charles Wolfe has been president for two years. In that time, the bombastic leader of the “Free World” has completely rearranged American politics. He has also shipped off dissenters and undesirables to officially nonexistent isolation camps that have been hastily constructed by his personal army, the CPS -- i.e., the “Civil Protection Service” -- in the barren deserts of the southwest. In spite of this, life for the average American has changed little - but things aren't getting any rosier for the small fries.

The Brown family of Assiginack, Michigan has plenty of their own small fry problems to deal with. Tom has been out of work for months, and his wife Linda is barely managing to keep the family afloat. Jasper, their son, has Apert's Syndrome, a congenital condition that results in deformed limbs, a misshapen skull, and numerous other health issues. While Jasper's mental faculties have remained relatively unscathed by his condition, he is all too aware of how different he is from “normal” children.

On an otherwise mundane night, as Jasper and his school friend Albert are playing Power Rangers, Jasper's family receives a call notifying them that Jasper has been accepted into a medical trial for a new form of genetic therapy developed by the brilliant Dr. Jean Thierry-Delvoix. The French doctor's experimental treatment has shown incredible promise ��" up to and including the seemingly miraculous resolution of physical deformities in lab animals. Jasper's parents jump at the opportunity ��"- and so does Jasper, who is eager to participate in spite of his butterflies.

What Jasper and his parents could never have expected is that Thierry-Delvoix's treatment will completely fail to produce the same results in humans that it has in the lab. However, its effect during the trial is even more potent and shocking: the development of psychic and metaphysical abilities that will cause a paradigm shift before the eyes of the very man who wants to harness the newfound powers for himself -- Charles Wolfe.

And unbeknownst to both Wolfe and his unlikely enemies, an even more dire threat is brewing - one that arises from the ranks of the children themselves.