Hank Raglan is a 24-year-old materials engineer from West View, a working-class suburb north of Pittsburgh. The year is 1989.
The son of electrician James Raglan, Hank grew up playing high-school football alongside his best friend, Sam Friday. He remains close to Sam’s younger sister, Caroline, whom he treats like his own little sister, completely unaware that she has carried a longtime crush on him. Hank also has an older brother, Jeremy, a blue-collar ironworker, and an estranged mother, Teresa, who moved across Pittsburgh after divorcing his father.
Only two years removed from an internship, Hank is now a full-time engineer at Unalco Corporation. Although young and relatively inexperienced, he possesses an uncanny, almost genius-level ability to solve complex materials-engineering problems. This talent earns him the attention of company president Tony Laporte, whom Hank admires as a mentor and father figure.
Hank makes just under thirty thousand dollars a year, rents his own apartment, and proudly drives his dream car: a used forest-green Jeep Cherokee.
Hank is handsome, athletic, clean-cut, friendly, and naturally confident. He has the easygoing charm of a former jock and smiles often, usually with a slightly mischievous glint in his eyes. He is intelligent without acting intellectual and confident without being arrogant. When confronted with surprising news, he is fond of asking, “Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?” The question can be playful, sarcastic, or a way of buying himself time to think.
Hank is deeply in love with Addison Moore and dreams of building a comfortable life with her. He once wanted to become a fiction writer but abandoned that dream for the security of engineering.
He does not crave power or greatness; he wants a rewarding career, a happy marriage, Steelers football, beers on the weekend, and time to enjoy the good life. However, his extraordinary mind draws him into corporate intrigue and a dangerous power struggle at Unalco. After becoming engaged to Addison, Hank leaves on a business trip to Kuwait City, where he mysteriously disappears on August 2, 1990.
