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

We went downtown with George Thursday morning to call home; after that, it was pretty much a repeat of Tuesday, except that we went with George, Mike, and Robbie to the Pizza Italian restaurant we’d enjoyed so much on our first evening in town.


FRIDAY AFTERNOON WE once again headed to the beach. We ran with Pete and, after cleaning up at his apartment, went for a ride with him up to the Mayport Naval Station so he could visit the commissary. There was an aircraft carrier docked at the base, and we got a close-up look at it.


“God, that’s a big mother,” Paul said.


Pete said, “Those things have to be huge—think about the size of the landing area on the deck. Believe it or not, some five thousand men and women live on board all of the time.”


“That’s right,” Jared said, “you served on carriers, didn’t you?”


“Been there, done that. Wouldn’t want to do it again.”


Chapter 73