Imagine you are on your Harley Fat Boy headed across Arkansas for El Paso to see if an old flame still carries a torch for him. Imagine you are and ex-Delta who now works for one of those alphabet soup agencies devoted to national security. And imagine your job is wet work for that agency.
Hunger gets the better of you and you pull into this out of the way joint for some pub grub. Mostly local color. A young fit guy is putting up with this old guy running his mouth about what’s wrong with any and everything. Three grease balls sit at the counter dressed more for Jersey, not for southern heat and humidity. Gregg Kaplan’s radar signals an alert. The sudden turn of the guys at the counter and the resulting exchange of gunfire with the outnumbered young guy pushes Gregg’s ‘help’ button. A quick disarm, a shot or two, and some quick action by the young guy puts the three sleaze balls on the floor with the old guy scrambling for the door.
The young guy is a US Marshall who is delivering someone to Witness Security (not witness protection - no such service we are told). He’s be mortally wounded in the shootout. As Gregg tries to stem the blood loss, they both find that Delta is a common bond. The dying Marshall pleads on thei
r Delta brotherhood for Gregg to deliver the guy to WitSec, to which Gregg agrees.
Gregg takes off after the witness beginning repeated chases and escapes from the mob, the Marshall’s service, the FBI, and local police. Across Arkansas, Tennessee, eventually ending up in Northern Virginia. At each close encounter, Gregg learns more about this witness and just what put him in line for WitSec.
One suggestion before starting this book. Find someplace quiet where you won’t be disturbed. Barrett starts the book off with a band and manages to set up blast after blast after blast and Kaplan becomes more suspect of the witness and the possibility of insider info within the Marshall’s service or the FBI. Author of the best selling Jake Pendleton series, one of which (Breach of Power) has been reviewed here. This one is far better. A 90+ mph mystery. Hope you don’t get carsick easily.
East Coast Don
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