Professor and secret government analyst Ian Sanderson's bad day gets worse when he arrives home one miserable November evening to find an apparently incriminating photograph in a FedEx envelope in his doorway, followed by increasingly threatening photographs over the next two or three weeks. It isn't just Ian being set up: his partner, Randy, a lieutenant colonel working on a top-secret Pentagon project, is also at risk. Someone obviously wants something, but what? And from whom?<br><br> Soon, a mysterious caller demands that Randy disclose information about the project he's been working on. When he refuses, Ian's and Randy's sons, David and Paul, are kidnapped from an Amtrak passenger train. Resourceful and intelligent, the boys manage to escape-only to find themselves lost and alone in a remote wilderness. With time running out, can Ian and Randy track down their blackmailers? Or will the man known only as The Broker claim another set of victims?

The Burdens of Truth

“Now that you mention it,” I said, “it does. A little weird, but good.”


“That’s hardly news,” I said. “I love you too.”


“No, Ian,” he said. “That’s not quite what I meant. I love you in the way that most men love women.”


“You’re just hard up for affection.”


“Please don’t make fun of me,” he said. “I’m serious. I love you. I think I’ve always loved you, but I simply never figured it out before.”


Before I could speak, his lips found mine, and for some strange reason, I didn’t resist. When we finally broke apart, gasping for air, he said, “Can’t you feel it? I’m aroused, and I think you are too.”


I felt his hand groping between our bodies, and he continued, “You feel it too, don’t you?”


“Yeah, I guess I do—in more ways than one.”


Chapter 3