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

“Where are you, and is Dad with you?” I said.


“We’re in the safe room,” he said.


“Put the phone on speaker, please,” I said. “I don’t wanta go through this twice.”


I heard a click followed by Dad’s voice saying, “What’s going on?”


“We’re at the apartment of a new friend of ours in Jacksonville Beach, and we just captured two guys who broke in—they were definitely looking for us.”


“Shit,” Uncle Randy said, “we really do have a leak at the Pentagon.”


“Listen, I’ve probably got just enough time to tell you about it in some detail before the local police get here, okay?”


“Go ahead,” Dad said. “I’ve got a recorder on the line.”


I went through the afternoon and evening in considerable detail, carefully omitting any references to sex, except I had to explain what Cody and Luke were doing in the bedroom before they surprised the bad guys.


“Did you guys get all of that?” I said.


“We’re proud of both of you,” Uncle Randy said.


Chapter 74