How much of the background of Washington D.C. (the layout of the streets, the laying of the cornerstones, the underground tunnels, etc.) is real as opposed to fiction?

It's all real.  Even my fictional hero Conrad Yeats's ancestor-a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention and opponent of ratification-is real.   The only three things I made up-at least I'm pretty sure they don't exist-is the existence of a "secret" U.S. Constitution that Washington buried in a celestial globe somewhere beneath the Mall, the Capitol R.A.T.S. special forces that patrol the tunnels beneath the Capitol (although surely they're needed), and the specific date and time in the future when the U.S. Capitol, White House and Washington Monument will "lock" with their celestial counterparts Arcturus, Regulas and Spica.  Freemasons and lay experts like David Ovason believe it's more like an annual event (Aug. 10), whereas I take the view there's a master, once-in-history alignment.

How did you conduct your research?

Over the years I've returned to D.C. and visited with my friends, now considerably higher up the power chain both here and abroad, and, well, I better stop, because now this is sounding like some kind of secret society.  But it was a lot of fun taking my wife, Laura, down a couple of those interesting tunnels.  This summer we're taking our boys, 12 and 8, for the above-ground festivities and fireworks-if only to show them that, my fiction aside, the United States of America is NOT going to end on July 4.

What did you do before you became a writer?

There was world travel and journalism, of course, and then Washington, followed by a stint on the corporate staff of one of the world's largest communications giants, which connected me with Wall Street and Hollywood.  I then wrote screenplays for a few years and later got involved in a couple of the big billion-dollar film finance deals for the Hollywood studios.  In short, I got a real education in doublespeak, paranoia and conspiracy while I worked on becoming a writer.

Fans will be thrilled to learn that not only is a film being developed but next year will see The Atlantis Revelation.

ITW contributing editor Jeff Ayers is the author of VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION: THE STAR TREK FICTION COMPANION Pocket Books-November 2006. He frequently reviews thrillers for Library Journal and regularly interviews authors for LJ, the Seattle Post-Intellgencer, and Writer Magazine.