Joan Carpenter

Joan Carpenter is a recently-promoted specialist in the Domestic Terrorism branch of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Her experience with major emergencies had been limited to helping the management of the Cowpox pandemic in the Americas in the American Midwest, until the Church of a Thousand Gross crisis.

The Church, and its associated Army of God, was declared a "domestic terrorist organisation" following the assassination attempt on David Scurr, the President of the United States, which was linked to them. The situation was complicated by the kidnapping of Sylvia Scurr, the First Lady, by the Army of God.

The National Guard having been repelled by the revelation by the Church's leader, John Patmos, that the Army was in possession of a low-yield nuclear device scavenged from the remains of a training incident twenty years ago, the best the government authorities could do was to set up a demilitarised zone around the Church's headquarters, called New Zion.

Joan was deployed in Patmos, Arkansas in order to discover possible inroads into the fortress and rescue the First Lady.