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

“I think the hot water’s beginning to go.”


“Yeah, I guess we’d better wrap this up.”


“Looks like we’re both ready to go again.”


“Reach behind you and turn the water off, and let’s do it again.”


We completed the task at hand, toweled ourselves dry, and pulled on the warm-ups and socks our hosts had left on the counter. “Ready to face the world, babe?” I said.


“Not until I shave and brush my teeth.”


There was just enough warm water for us to complete the task of shaving, after which we brushed our teeth. Then we left the bathroom and walked hand in hand down the hallway to the kitchen.


MIKE AND I WENT to the kitchen, and I said, “They need soup and hot chocolate. I’m gonna set up the recorder.”


“Why?” he said. “Those guys are probably starving.”


Chapter 34