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

“Cute, smart, and talented,” George said.


“Yeah. Apparently he’s a musical prodigy.”


“Yes, he is,” George said. “Piano and organ. Tom Foster is teaching him piano and organ.”


“The best,” George said. “Dr. Foster is a professor at the University of North Florida, as well as the organist and choirmaster of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Jacksonville. He also travels a lot, giving concerts here and there. And, he’s also family, and a friend of ours.”


“Yes,” George said. “His partner Noah Webster is a bass/baritone and was among the finalists in… I think it was last year’s Metropolitan Opera auditions. He’s gonna have a stellar career.”


“Tom Foster. Hmm. I wonder why that name is familiar?”


“He performed at the National Cathedral a couple of years ago, maybe longer,” George said. “Does that help? I think he’s also performed at St. Paul’s in DC.”


Chapter 50