The Inspired Pen: Hide and Seek by H.L. Wegley

Espionage Thriller with Romance

He expected security breaches, but the conspiracy she discovers sends them running for their lives.

HIDE AND SEEK is an espionage thriller about an ingenious plot to neutralize several critical U.S. military weapons systems using cyber-warfare. When the two very bright MCs, Lee and Jennifer, discover the sinister plot, they are targeted for elimination before they can disclose their findings.

A computer security breach within a US defense contractor’s firewalls leads investigators, Lee Brandt and beautiful, brilliant Jennifer Akihara, onto the cyber-turf of terrorists, where they are detected and targeted for elimination. Lee leads them on a desperate and prayer-filled flight for survival into the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Will Jennifer’s pursuit of truth about the conspiracy, and the deepest issues of life, lead her into the clutches of terrorists, into the arms of Lee Brandt, or into the arms of the God she deems untrustworthy?

Excerpt: from chapter 6

Lee escorted Jennifer out of the compound and walked past the gate shack. No Randy. Good. He wouldn’t have to expose Jennifer to more suggestive remarks.

When they entered the north end of the parking area he glanced at her. “You can follow me over to Joe’s place. It’s just about a mile east of here, a block off from North Fourth Avenue.”

“OK. When you tell Joe I’m involved in the investigation…”

“Don’t worry about Joe. I can handle him.” A short way down the lot he stopped, smiled, and gestured to their left. “There’s my car.”

Jennifer pivoted towards his car and stopped. Her eyes lit up and checked out his Mustang like a scanner digitizing an image. She smiled warmly at him. “A classic. Very nice, Lee.”

It was the second genuine smile she’d shown him. What that smile did for an already beautiful face was incredible.

Good taste in cars. I wonder about her taste in men.

No, I don’t wonder anything about her.

Now in control, the right side of his brain turned a deaf ear and continued to savor the smile.

“I’ll swing by your parking spot and lead you to a shortcut through a couple adjacent lots. And about National Aerospace Computing Security…have no fear, Lee is here.”

Even in the dimly-lit parking lot he could see the rolling eyes. She strode down the lot towards her car.

In her presence he couldn’t turn a decent phrase. But he sure could turn a decent phrase into something stupid. He pulled out his keys, stopped, and snapped his fingers.

Jennifer’s visitor’s badge.

Randy wasn’t in the gate shack and he forgot to return her badge. When he glanced down the lot Jennifer was nearly to her car. He trotted towards her. “Hey, Ms. Akihara…Jennifer. I forgot—“

The area lit up like mid-day. A deafening boom sounded behind him. The shock wave blindsided him with the force of an NFL linebacker, knocking him forward to the concrete. He stuck out his arm to protect his face. His body rode on his right forearm for several feet, while the rough concrete rasped off his coat sleeve and much of the skin underneath it.

He lay sprawled out on the parking lot pavement. His mind struggled to comprehend what had happened. When he picked himself up, he shook his head to remove the cobwebs. There were too many of them. Blood ran down his right forearm. Pain brushed some of the cobwebs away.

Explosion.

Arm burning and ears ringing, he looked for the source of the blast. It came from what had been his car—from what was now only a blackened shell. The sense of loss hit him in his gut. He might never be able to replace that car. He brushed away a few more cobwebs. The clearing of his mind brought a bigger worry. Better a bombed car than a bombed body. But the bombing attempt had failed, so…

The air emptied from his lungs and he drew a deep breath. His pulse quickened. The realization hit him like a stinging slap on the face. They were in big trouble, but the incoming flak wouldn’t be the kind that got one fired. It would be the kind that got fired at one—bullets from people who killed to keep secrets.

Despite their delicate search on the infected computer their foray must’ve triggered attention and it wasn’t all coming from some hacker halfway around the world.

Author Bio:

H. L. Wegley served in the USAF as an Intelligence Analyst and a Weather Officer. He is a Meteorologist who worked as a Research Scientist in Atmospheric Physics. After earning an MS in Computer Science, he worked more than two decades as a Systems Programmer at Boeing before retiring in the Seattle area, where he and his wife of 46 years enjoy small-group ministry, their seven grandchildren, and where he pursues his love of writing. He has a 3-book romantic-thriller series, Pure Genius Series, contracted with Harbourlight Books, Pelican Book Group and has been requested to write a 4^th book in that series. Book 1, Hide and Seek, released in February 2013. He also published his childhood adventures in a humorous memoir, Colby and Me: Growing up in the 50’s

Reviews/Notices/Awards:

"Mr. Wegley—let's see more of Jennifer & Lee. Either write faster, or get your publisher to publish faster. I'm waiting!" ~~ Kate Hinke

"...the story really comes alive and pulls you along for a heart-stopping ride. Hide and Seek by H.L. Wegley is a definite keeper if you love suspense with a touch of romance. " ~~ Ginger Solomon

“Wow, Mr. Wegley definitely keeps you on the run and out of breath through this whole story.”

~~ author, Donna M. Basinow

“I started reading this book because it had something to do with computer security, since I work in this area. However, while that is part of the very exciting story, there is much more to the book than that with a number of different plots, including a great romance story and surprises along the way. The author has done a great job of weaving a very exciting, well-written story together that I could not put down until I finished it in one reading.” ~~ Thomas Hinke

Harry, why did you write HIDE AND SEEK?

Over the span of my three careers, I saw a lot of incidents that, woven together, would make a good thriller. But besides telling a suspenseful story and a story about first love, I had a couple of things in mind when I wrote Hide and Seek. For those who know our Lord and Savior, I hope they will see that the barriers to faith in others' lives are most often the heart-rending existential questions, not the big intellectual issues. We have the answer to all their questions, the Person of Jesus Christ, and we need to share that answer with them. For those who don't know our Savior, Hide and Seek is my heroine's redemption story. I hope readers will see that a relationship with the one true God is available to them through Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.