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

“If you don’t mind my asking, how do you guys stand it at a place like The Citadel?”


“Originally, we thought the discipline would be good for us,” Sean said.


“Yeah,” Paul said, “but after all that’s happened, we’ve been having second thoughts about that.”


“It’s never too late to transfer somewhere else,” I said.


“Yeah,” Sean said. “We were sort of planning to go to Georgetown Law after we graduate so we can live at home, but it might be good to check into a transfer now.”


“Ask Uncle Ian,” Paul said. “He’ll know how to handle it.”


“Dinner in less than five,” Mike announced from the kitchen.


Thor got up and trotted to the door, and I said, “Unless our early-warning dog has failed us, we have company. Yep, feel those vibrations? People are coming up the outside steps.”


I went to the door and opened it to admit two men. “You must be Dr. Sanderson,” I said to the first man through the door,. “I’m George Martin.”


“Yes, I am,” he said. “How did you know?”


Chapter 41