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

Kevin said, “George, it’ll be warm enough to use the pool in a few weeks, so you and Mike will have to bring Robbie over to swim with Anthony.”


“Anthony is Kevin’s nephew,” George said by way of explanation. “He and David adopted him a while back.”


“Yeah,” Mike said, “he’s pretty close to Robbie’s age, and they’re buddies.”


George looked pointedly at the clock on the wall and said, “Sorry, guys, but I’m due downtown shortly. Give my regards to your grandmother, Kevin.”


In the shower room, George looked at us and said, “I know you guys are dying to ask us a question, but why don’t you wait until we’re outside?”


In the parking lot, we said good-bye to Mike, and he went to retrieve Robbie from the KidZone people at the Y so he could take him to school. We stood beside George’s city car, waiting to follow him downtown in the rental car.


Chapter 72