st place award in the 2023 Feathered Quill Book Awards MysterySuspense categoryWhen a top secret and powerful US surveillance technology is stolen and offered for sale on the black market an exiled reporter races to expose the theft and untangle the plotbefore the story is spikedamp160and he is silenced for good.amp160Coming off a successful investigation into a major banking scandalamp160Newshoundamp160reporter Nik Byron arrives in Washington DC with high hopes for his career. But a disruptive corporate merger and a vengeful boss quickly dash his plans. Relegated to scut work and the graveyard shift Niks career and emotions are in a tailspin. That is until a latenight explosion levels a hightech office parkamp8212home to some of the nationamp8217s topamp160clandestine programsamp8212and provides Nikamp160withamp160an opportunity to reverse his fortunes.amp160As Nik tries to unravel the mystery at the heart of the explosion he suddenly finds himself confronting domestic terrorists rogue American and Chinese spies mercenaries and a brilliant but temperamental computer expert.amp160With the help of a small team of colleagues and his new girlfriendamp160Samantha Whyteamp8212the chief investigator for the Northern Virginia Sheriffamp8217s Department who has her own secrets to concealamp8212Nik follows a bloody trail of bodies from DC to the upper Midwest. But as word gets out that what he has dug up threatens to expose the theft of highly sensitive US technology now being sold to terrorists and repressive regimes new enemies close in. How far is Nik willing to go for a storyamp160and how much is he willing to riskamp160to revealamp160the truthamp160