“Tell me what happened yesterday?”
Riley Bishop shifted on the padded chair in her psychiatrist’s office and stared at the abstract watercolor on the wall. “I saw my ex-husband, Lucus.”
“And. . .” Dr. Gabrieli prodded.
Riley didn’t answer.
“Riley?
She finally looked back at the doctor. “It wasn’t Lucus. Just someone who looked like him.”
Because Lucus was dead.
“Exactly. You see, our minds are incredible machines but simply put, they don’t work like computers. Instead, they can unconsciously bend our perception of what is real and fill in the gaps, making it possible to perceive things that aren’t really there.” Dr. Gabrieli tapped her pen against her notebook as if emphasizing her words. “Think about an amputee who still feels his missing leg, or how it’s possible to see patterns in chaos. Memories are sprinkled with gaps, then we fill in those gaps with our own created recollections.”
False information.
Distorted memories.
Lies.
But what if your mind can’t decipher what are truths and what are lies? And what if the truth is more dangerous than the lies your mind believes?
***
Riley Bishop is a single mother, working at home as a security analyst to provide for her two children, Sadie and Oliver. But something is very wrong. Riley starts forgetting things—like appointments, where she put her keys, and where she parked her car. And then she thinks she sees her deceased ex-husband while out shopping. But as Riley begins to question her own sanity, her twelve-year-old Sadie goes missing. Soon Riley finds it harder and harder to know what is truth and what are lies as she is forced to question her own reality while she searches for her daughter.
Apprehending fugitives as a part of the US Marshals Service Special Operations Group gives Tucker Shaw the purpose and drive he needs to fight the demons from his past. When he’s called out on a mission, Operation Jackal, to track down a group of endangered children, he has no idea how drastically his life is about to change. It’s a frantic hunt as Tucker and his team race to save thirteen children, including Sadie. But when Sadie’s mother comes to him with credible evidence on who is behind the girls’ disappearances, the situation quickly spirals out of control with a final twist that has Tucker questioning everything he knows to be true.
