Risk! There are all kinds. Sometimes risk is just another word for adventure. Do you prefer the comfort of what is familiar or do you crave new experiences? It's a matter of attitude. Stimulus! Your anxiety rises. The rush of adrenalin and the release of endorphins in your body creates excitement. But how does the brain process and interpret the stimulus? Are you thrilled, or are you scared or agitated? Does it block your cognitive reasoning? Do you become nervous and start to panic? Are you among the few who can measure and control your emotions and reactions in the spur of an excited moment? The only way we find out the answer to that question is to face a life and death situation - and survive. So, here you are. You worked hard and sacrificed the present for your future. You become a lawyer. You meet a great gal and you fall in love. You get a great job with great opportunity in a growing and vibrant company. Management likes you, and you are on a fast-track to promotion. You find great opportunities to learn and develop your skills. Everything is just peachy keen. Then, one day, a new opportunity arises. It's a big money-making opportunity for the company. It's a huge construction project in a foreign country. The government of that foreign country wants your company to build this thing for them because they don't have the expertise to do it themselves. Your company has never done work in a foreign county. Your company has never performed a project for someone else's benefit. By the way, it's a third-world country. Its modern history is filled with corruption, crime and shaky governing. And here's the kicker - your company executives want you to lead the project. Wow! What a rush! This is the type of thing that separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls, and real heroes from pretenders. This is the new world of Eli Taylor. He has grown to be a true leader in few short years. So far in his career he has not shown he fears any challenge. Okay, so this one is just bigger than anything he has ever done. Okay, it's in Bolivia. And, by the way, the most ruthless Russian mafia, Red Bratva, has been waiting for the opportunity to restore a drug trafficking cartel under their control in the region. They envision your company's project as the best cover to hide their nefarious intentions. Your project is to build a pipeline system from La Paz, across the Andes mountains, to a Pacific Ocean port on the coast of Peru. Things go well at first. Then information becomes available from the FBI that a drug trafficking operation has become active along the route of your pipeline. Your company has no choice but to cooperate with the FBI's and Bolivia's investigation. You suspect that the leader of the drug trafficking operation is none other than the contract security officer of a company helping your company build the pipeline. He is using an alias, Andrew Johnson, to hide his identity. Eli discovers he's no ordinary security specialist. He's an international, criminal operative hired by the Red Bratva to infiltrate the project for the purpose of cloaking his activities. Johnson doesn't expect Eli and the FBI are aware of his intentions until he is confronted with the potential of capture, right in front of Eli's eyes. In a bloody escape attempt they are both seriously wounded. Johnson's Red Bratva accomplices free him while he recuperates in a Lima, Peru prison hospital. He leaves a message for Eli, seeking a bloody revenge against him and his love interest, Danielle Merchant. At this point there is no turning back. They can try to hide or confront Johnson. He and Danielle choose not to run and hide, but to prepare to meet the challenge. Their moment of truth is about to take place. They will soon find out what they are made of. How does it end? I promise you'll be surprised, and you won't be disappointed.
About the Author: The author is an attorney whose clients were in the energy industry. After 25 years in practice he formed his own consulting firm. Six years later he sold his firm and retired to pursue a career as a novelist. This is my introductory novel. I have been blessed with the friendship of some of the most interesting characters one can imagine. Representing them opened the doors to some of the richest true stories that occur when real corporate cowboys are in play. I had a specialty in the energy business that also led to unique experiences - disaster response, working on 38 events, some of which were horrific.. I came to realize that true stories are usually more interesting than fiction, especially when they are populated with extraordinary characters. I promised myself that I would retell the best stories and bring back to life the men and women that enriched my career. I have fictionalized them to protect the identities of the companies and their employees. I use a pseudonym as an author, but I can tell you that I graduated from a southern university and law school. I was fortunate to be mentored by one of the most interesting people I have ever encountered. His career started in the FBI. We became a team within a firm that dealt with energy concerns and their worst nightmares. We were "fixers." That meant we were good at making bad events disappear. My mentor and I had many downtime hours, and he would share his FBI exploits with me, and i would share my experience with disasters. He passed away before he could share all of his stories, but I committed the best to memory so I could fit them into my novels.