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

“George,” he said, “we’ve got to stop meeting like this.”


“What do you mean, Dan?” George said.


“Seems like every time I see you, a crime has either just been committed, or is about to be committed, or one is in the middle of happening,” the man said.


“Sorry, Dan,” George said. “I guess it comes with the territory.”


“Why don’t you and I walk over to Mr. Hall’s porch,” Dan said, “so you can tell me what’s going on while my guys take charge of your prisoners?”


He looked up at the old man and said, “I think it’s safe to put that thing down, Cyrus, now that we’re here.”


“Aw, shucks, Dan, this is the most fun I’ve had in years.”


“I know, Cyrus,” the sheriff said, “but this isn’t like the old days when you and I worked together. You can’t just shoot ‘em and not worry about it like we used to.”


“I know, that’s why I quit. Damn civilization, anyhow.”


He ejected the shells from the chamber, placed the shotgun carefully on the floor behind his chair, and sat down.


Chapter 48