Part I: The Ivory Tower in the Sky The First Class cabin of Flight 404 from New York (JFK) to Zurich was…
Part I: The Sanctuary of the Road The asphalt on Highway 49 shimmered under the relentless July sun, creating heat mirages that…
Chapter 1: The Girl in the Grey Coat The wind off the harbor in Portsmouth was brutal that November. It was the…
Part I: The Golden Cage If you looked at my life from the sidewalk of East 64th Street, peering through the wrought-iron…
Part I: The Empty Empire The rain over Manhattan was not cleansing; it was oppressive. It fell in sheets of grey steel, hammering…
Part I: The Glass Cage The crystal chandelier in the dining room of the penthouse on Fifth Avenue didn’t sparkle; it glared. It…
The salt air off the coast of Maine didn’t smell like freedom; it smelled like decay. Elias Thorne stood on the jagged edge…
Chapter 1: The Rumble on Route 27 The bell above the diner door chimed like a warning. Twelve leather-clad bikers walked in,…
Chapter 1: The Fortress of Solitude The rain in Seattle didn’t wash things clean; it just made the shadows deeper. Margaret Hayes…
Chapter 1: The Billion-Dollar Paperweight The conference room on the 80th floor of the Mendoza Tower in downtown Chicago offered a panoramic…