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

They herded us out the door, through the exit, and onto the enclosed platform between our car and the one behind it. Fat Thug pulled up a metal floor panel, revealing the steps below. Then he opened the outside door. “Out,” he said, “now.”


We climbed down the steps and jumped off onto the roadbed. Two other guys, also equipped with ski masks and guns, were standing there waiting, and before we had time to take a look at our surroundings, we were shoved into the back of a van and the doors were slammed shut behind us. Then I felt a prick and the world went dark.


Chapter 21