"In telling the story of how the intelligence analyst Bradley Manning came into contact with the self-promoting anti-secrecy radical Julian Assange under the pressure cooker of the Iraq war, Denver Nicks has written a page-turner that reads like a cyberthriller. It's simultaneously a coming-of-age story, a coming-out story, an X-ray of American culture in the Homeland Security era, a well-researched history of espionage, an expose of the routinized cruelties of the 21st-century US military, and a meditation on the human costs of the cult of secrecy." --Ned Sublette, author of The World that Made New Orleans "WikiLeaks accomplice Brad Manning was a gay geek in the military at a time when 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' defined the war on all kinds of freedoms, not just sexual ones. Denver Nicks has given us a suspenseful, sensitively drawn account of righteous rage, vigilante justice, and the young man who risked his future to make the truth known." --James Gavin, author of Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker "Brad Manning's ordinary existence becomes extraordinary through the fine writing of Nicks. The conversations between Manning, his confidants, and others are expertly woven together in a way that propels this story along like a thrilling, suspense-filled novel." --Randy L. Schmidt, author of Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter

Denver Nicks is a writer based in New York City. Originally from Oklahoma, he has developed a reputation for intrepid reporting in challenging contexts. Nicks has written about street art in Poland, a failed coup in the Philippines, post-coup Honduras, and the hidden working-class underbelly of Wall Street in the midst of the financial meltdown. A Fulbright Scholar, he holds a Master of Science from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His work has appeared in "The Daily Beast," "AlterNet," "The Nation, "and other publications.