Jet Trails at Dusk (eBook)

Jeffrey Shafer (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024 | 1. Auflage
248 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
9798350989168 (ISBN)

Infos

Everything in Tony's life is perfect until two catastrophic events drive him to transform his life. Tony's newlywed wife Virginia realizes that she does not want a life of marriage, and abruptly divorces him. The resulting emotional turmoil motivates Tony to alter his career path as he creates a highly successful food service business. While on his journey to fortune and fame, Tony is devastated by the story of a teenage girl who commits suicide, triggered by sexually explicit deepfake photos of her posted to social media. Tony resolves to combat systematic privacy invasion by eliminating his physical and technological footprints from public scrutiny, going completely off the grid. To do so, Tony conceives of a way to have himself legally declared deceased. Tony's effort to successfully sustain his ruse is threatened by his divorced wife who is envious of the wealth earned by Tony after their marriage ended. In her attempt to recover Tony's estate, Virginia initiates an affair with a nefarious government agent, Richard Armitas. Desperate to keep from being cut off from his romance with the beguiling Virginia, Armitas utilizes his expertise and resources to unravel the mystery behind Tony's apparent death and the inexplicable disappearance of his vast fortune. To cover his tracks, Tony creates fabricated identities not listed in any public or private databases. His personifications enable Tony to peacefully live and work without scrutiny, until Richard Armitas begins to whittle away at the credibility of his pseudo stand-ins. While trying to evade a cross-country pursuit by the experienced Agent Armitas, Tony must decide whether to stay off the grid or come back to the public spotlight to save the life of a high-ranking U.S. Government official who is facing a decision that will impact the nation.

Jeffrey P. Shafer was raised in the Washington, D.C. area. During his career as a business owner, he also taught entrepreneurship courses at a women's college in the Cleveland area. Following the sale of his business, Jeff started working as a high school and club volleyball coach. His first novel, Our Game (2021), tells the story of the first woman to play on a professional baseball team with men. He was inspired to write a novel about the acceptance of women into professional sports after listening to the hopes and dreams of his students and athletes. Jet Trails at Dusk (2024) is the story of one man's crusade against technology's invasion into the private lives of Americans. Jeff currently resides in Cleveland and San Diego. www.jeffreypshafer.com

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Jet Trails at Dusk is a high-stakes legal thriller where technology is the ultimate villain. Tony Larson's orderly life shatters when his wife Virginia divorces him, calling him too predictable. Seeking reinvention, Tony builds a lucrative business empire but becomes disillusioned by technology's relentless invasion of privacy. Determined to disappear, Tony orchestrates his own death and crafts new identities to live off the grid. Two years later, Virginia, consumed by jealousy over Tony's wealth, seduces FBI agent Richard Armitas, who risks his career to hunt Tony down. As Tony evades a relentless pursuit, Supreme Court Justice Abigail Johannson's life hangs in the balance her survival depends on a bone marrow transplant from the presumed-dead Tony. Tony faces a choice: remain hidden or reemerge to save Abigail and defend Americans' right to privacy. In a gripping climax, Tony delivers a powerful plea before the Supreme Court, redefining justice and freedom.

Textauszug

CHAPTER 2

Days Gone By

His iPhone announced the start of the day as was routine every weekday morning, precisely at 5:45 a.m. Tony glanced at the iWatch on his left wrist to check his sleep statistics for the night. The stats showed it had been a typical night, except for a REM period, when his heart rate had accelerated due to a dreamy rendezvous with a captivating unknown lady. He didn’t need what he referred to as an invasive Apple time robot around his wrist to make that call.

By 7:00 a.m., he was on his way to the metro station, first having stopped off at Le Pain Quotidien for his typical weekday petit déjeuner of a butter croissant and a large Americano. The Blue Line train arrived pretty much on schedule, whisking Tony and his fellow passengers towards the King Street station in Alexandria. Tony enjoyed being a reverse commuter. It made him feel somewhat unique from the people riding in the packed, opposite-direction metro cars. He was always able to find his favorite seat in the row between the back doors of the train car and the exit door leading to the next car. Occasionally he found himself having to skirt around luggage that was attached to folks heading to their morning flights out of Reagan. Nevertheless, Tony regularly researched the airport’s morning departure schedule to determine which Blue Line trains were likely to have the least number of travelers outbound from Reagan Airport.

Tony Larsen hated calling attention to himself, even when the attention was flattering. However, he did enjoy certain characteristics of his life that made him stand out just a bit from the crowd. The first of these unique characteristics was bestowed upon Tony the moment he was born. Thirty-six years ago, his parents were taking a final brief summer getaway just three weeks prior to his mother’s due date. His mom and dad had taken a morning boat ride and were planning to stay on the island for a few hours before taking the boat back to the mainland. After arriving on the island, they rented a golf cart, drove around a while, and then headed to Delaware Street to find a place to eat lunch. As the story went, about one hour after they had finished lunch, his mom had a craving for ice cream. They had been relaxing at the state park after lunch and headed back to town for dessert and their scheduled return boat ride. After taking a bite of her waffle cone, she went into labor. When asked where he had been born, Tony always got a kick out of telling people that it was at a small medical clinic in Put-In-Bay, Ohio. Fortunately, it was a very routine birth that provided Tony with a second unique feature to his life. His first mode of transport after being born had been a life flight helicopter ride to a mainland Sandusky, Ohio hospital with his parents.

Tony had been raised in Annapolis, Maryland, where both his parents were employed by the U.S. Naval Academy. During his first two years at the University of Maryland, Tony used his best efforts to become acquainted with the bars along Route 1 and do his part to make certain that Testudo wouldn’t fly away from his pedestal. By his junior year, Tony had knuckled down on his studies with a fascination for international relations. After a summer internship at the U.S. State Department, and a subsequent master’s degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, Tony settled into a job with the Agency for International Development.

Shortly after Tony turned twenty-five, he and his buddy Chris set up a Saturday night dinner with a couple of college friends who had come back to the D.C. area for the weekend. Tony and Chris decided to stop in for a drink at a bar in Georgetown before heading out to join their friends for dinner. Neither Chris nor Tony had any intention of striking up a conversation with the two ladies who were already seated at the bar, but within ten minutes of their arrival, the foursome was engrossed in a lively discussion. At 7:15 p.m., Chris indicated to the ladies that he and Tony had a dinner engagement with some friends and needed to leave.

Tony suggested, “We really hate to cut this short. How about we meet for brunch tomorrow at Clyde’s?”

Virginia, the woman who had caught Tony’s eye, volunteered, “That’s the greatest pick-up line I’ve ever heard! Drinks and no invitation to go back to your place? Gentlemen, you’ve just earned yourselves a second date!”

Fifteen months later, Tony and Virginia were celebrating their honeymoon on a two-week Mediterranean cruise. Tony couldn’t have been happier. Virginia, an attorney for a D.C. think tank, was vibrant, intelligent, and passionate. He envisioned that one day they would move to one of the suburbs surrounding D.C., raise a family, and live happily ever after.

Tony turned out to be the perfect husband. He worked hard at his job, made a good living, was generous, romantic, and empathetic. Virginia’s parents couldn’t have been happier with their new son-in-law. Yes, Tony turned out to be the perfect husband—a little too perfect as it turned out for Virginia. Virginia couldn’t quite remember when Tony began to get on her nerves. Was it his overly meticulous nature? Was it the fact that everything needed to be planned, organized, put back in its proper drawer, shelf, or closet? Geez, even the nails, screws, nuts, and bolts in his tool cabinet needed to be separated and labeled. It wasn’t that Tony didn’t have personal interests, didn’t support Virginia’s interests, or didn’t like to travel. It simply was that Virginia decided being Mrs. Tony Larsen for the remainder of her life would be utterly boring.

Shortly before their second anniversary, Tony was asked to travel to St. Lucia to oversee a business incubator project funded by his agency located in the country’s capital of Castries.

“Virginia, we’ve got to plan a trip together here. It’s the most luscious place I’ve ever seen!” Tony was booked at Sandals Regency La Toc for three nights. He decided to take an extra day after his business was concluded to hike around Gros Pitons.

“That’s wonderful, honey. Tell you what, when you land, I’ll meet you at Reagan and we can head to Chinatown for some dinner.”

Perfect, thought Virginia. That gives me four days. Four meticulous days to get organized.

Four days later, just after 6 p.m., Tony’s flight landed at Reagan Airport from his stopover in Miami. As Tony plowed into Virginia’s embrace, he relished the feel of her warm hug and the gentle scent of her perfume. Tony looked forward to a feast at their favorite Chinatown restaurant followed by a passionate post-trip evening at home with Virginia.

The couple boarded the Yellow Line train and after a few stops, departed the metro at Gallery Place. They exited the station at H Street and continued the short walk to Chinatown Express. Tony ordered a beer while Virginia, usually a wine drinker, ordered a vodka martini, dry.

Twenty minutes later, Tony found himself sitting alone at the table, dunking his egg roll in hot mustard, and taking a huge bite. He had traded in his beer for a double bourbon. Tony could still hear Virginia’s parting words ringing in his ears.

“It’s not that I don’t love you, Tony. It’s just that I’m not cut out for a life of diapers and school band concerts. All I can see is too much monotony, too many repetitive activities, too many months where the calendar pages look the same, year after year.”

“Ginny, but if you love me, doesn’t that mean that we can shape our future together without all of the repetition and monotony that concerns you?”

“Tony, it’s not you, it’s me.”

Tony couldn’t believe it. He knew that Virginia was feeding him a slice of bull pie. For months, she had been grousing that he was too organized, too meticulous, too much of a planner, and worst of all not spontaneous enough.

Tony knew that there was another side to that coin: responsibility, accountability, and dependability. Tony had once listened to a podcast about success, that made a distinction between responsibility and accountability. The speaker asked her audience to imagine that they were in a car accident wherein the other driver had been driving and texting and had plowed into your car. Were you responsible for the car accident? No. Were you accountable for being in the car accident? Most definitely, yes. She continued to stress that had you taken another route, been driving in another lane, left for your destination earlier, you would not have been hit by the other driver. Why lay the burden of accountability on yourself? In a word, the author continued, empowerment. The knowledge that unexpected shit happens to all of us but that we don’t have to stick around to wallow in it.

I’ll get over this. I’ll get over this and come out the other side in ways that I can’t even envision today. And with that, Tony ordered another double bourbon and the most expensive meal on the menu. As he was leaving the restaurant, he noticed that three other tables were occupied by diners. Tony asked to speak with the owner, paid for dinner for everyone in the restaurant, and walked back to the Gallery Place Metro Station.

The Metro pulled into King Street Station as Tony pushed his failed marriage out of his mind. He walked the two blocks to his company’s...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.12.2024
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-13: 9798350989168 / 9798350989168