The Program

Description

In this powerful follow-up to his action-packed thriller The Kill Clause, Gregg Hurwitz, the new maestro of pulse-pounding suspense, ratchets up the excitement with another sensational page-turner featuring Tim Rackley, a driven lawman motivated by honor, morality, and a deep sense of justice. Called back into the fold of the U.S. Marshals Service, Tim is tasked with retrieving Leah Henning, the daughter of a powerful Hollywood producer, from a mind-control cult. As Tim wends his way deep undercover into an insidious operation called The Program, he confronts a brand of mind-warping manipulation beyond his worst expectations. Tim becomes enmeshed with a diverse band of characters—from the charismatic, messianic leader T. D. Betters to a cult reject burnout to the intelligent yet highly vulnerable Leah herself—and finds himself caught in a shadowy landscape of lies, manipulation, and terror. At stake: innocent minds—maybe even his own. Title Page......Page 3 Contents......Page 8 Prologue To the bemusement of the tourists and a third-grade class.........Page 12 One Dray walked briskly through the kitchen and entry, wiping barbecue.........Page 16 Two Tim strode down the hall leading to the marshal’s office,.........Page 27 Three Tim worked the phone on the drive up the coast,.........Page 34 Four As soon as Tim entered Haines Hall on UCLA’s North.........Page 41 Five The institute’s bleached tile, white walls, and the antiseptic chill.........Page 49 Six The comm center, buried in Cell Block on the third.........Page 52 Seven When Tim arrived home, Dray wasn’t at the kitchen table.........Page 58 Eight The insistent bleating of the cell phone pulled Tim from.........Page 61 Nine Leah opened her eyes and felt a flutter of anxiety,.........Page 70 Ten When Tim woke up half an hour later, Dray was.........Page 74 Eleven Leah spent the morning polishing the Teacher’s shoes with another.........Page 82 Twelve Fully tacked up with vests and ballistic helmets, Denley and.........Page 89 Thirteen The dashboard of the Acura rattled when Tim hit eighty.........Page 91 Fourteen Tim asked Dray to join him for his six o’clock.........Page 100 Fifteen In the back of the Growth Hall, Stanley John was.........Page 106 Sixteen When Tim and Dray got back from their morning run,.........Page 119 Seventeen A stack of hundreds money-clipped around a farrago of false.........Page 123 Eighteen It’s in a Radisson, Bear. How sinister can something in.........Page 128 Nineteen When she finished this time, TD stroked her hair. “There,.........Page 133 Twenty Wedged between a smoggy run of Sepulveda and perpetual traffic.........Page 135 Twenty-One Driving home in the sunrise, Tim struggled to keep from.........Page 165 Twenty-Two I have an agenda. Senator Feinstein has an agenda. Will.........Page 170 Twenty-Three Janie shook her awake. “Guess what? Guess what?”......Page 180 Twenty-Four Weapons of influence.” Bederman settled into an outmoded armchair. “They’ve.........Page 186 Twenty-Five Greeting him at the Hennings’ front door was a bodybuilder.........Page 191 Twenty-Six When Tim entered the house from the garage, smoke was.........Page 196 Twenty-Seven You ever think about how our cells die, every minute.........Page 197 Twenty-Eight Tim moved with small groups or large contingents, but never.........Page 208 Twenty-Nine Despite the downpour, Tim loitered outside his cottage, noting the.........Page 218 Thirty Along with the light-headedness, his exhaustion helped lower Tim’s inhibitions.......Page 225 Thirty-One Arms crossed over his knees, Lorraine’s bobby pin pinched between.........Page 233 Thirty-Two Leah had been too agitated to sleep. She’d risen with.........Page 243 Thirty-Three Wendy confronted the stack of legal documents before her. “I.........Page 249 Thirty-Four Entering from the garage, Tim found Dray at the kitchen.........Page 254 Thirty-Five Freed’s Porsche dripped oil in Tannino’s driveway, parked beside the.........Page 261 Thirty-Six Walking down the hall, Tim could hear the murmur of.........Page 267 Thirty-Seven Leah left another check-in message for TD and went straight.........Page 275 Thirty-Eight For a rail-thin postal inspector, Owen B. Rutherford was surprisingly intimidating.......Page 281 Thirty-Nine The dusty motel room seemed emptier without the Hennings. Dray.........Page 283 Forty Pants loosed around her hips, Dray lay sprawled on the.........Page 288 Forty-One The phone rang at six-thirty, jerking Tim from a deep.........Page 291 Forty-Two Through the welcoming fanfare, through the full-body hugs and Skate’s.........Page 293 Forty-Three Though the storm had quieted, the sky stayed murky, like.........Page 295 Forty-Four Stretched shivering beneath two sheets, Leah lay on Tim’s bed,.........Page 298 Forty-Five Sunday passed in slow motion. Since Dray didn’t have a.........Page 307 Forty-Six At 7:12 P.M. Dray snatched the phone off the hook.........Page 313 Forty-Seven The sterile light felt like pins sticking in his eyes.......Page 321 Forty-Eight While Dray showered, Tim hobbled around the living room, focusing.........Page 329 Forty-Nine The service elevator dinged open, and Tim and Reggie stepped.........Page 334 Fifty The Blazer pulled through the Hidden Hills gate right behind.........Page 348 Fifty-One While Tim went out of his mind with impatience, Winston........Page 350 Fifty-Two The marshal screeched over on the side of Little Tujunga.........Page 353 Acknowledgments......Page 368 About the Author......Page 371 Also by Gregg Hurwitz......Page 372 Credits......Page 373 Cover......Page 1 Copyright......Page 374 About the Publisher......Page 375