Chasing Freedom: The Prequel (Against All Enemies)

Chasing Freedom: The Prequel (Against All Enemies)

How far would you be willing to go if you were chasing freedom? When Allie Santiago, international scholar at Oregon State University, and her family are captured and labor trafficked by the same drug cartel that drove her father from Mexico, she learns the cartel thugs plan to sell her to human traffickers. Allie escapes, running a marathon through the mountains of Northern California, and collapses in the arms of Jeff Jacobs, a disgraced Olympic decathlete who wants to regain both his honor and his former glory. When Jeff’s actions engage the FBI and US Marshals to protect Allie and free her family from the cartel, a war breaks out in the mountains along the Oregon-California border. Will Jeff’s efforts enable the two to survive and their budding relationship to grow? Not unless he can keep Allie and her family out of the black hole known as asylum detention. And the reward he now seeks for his efforts, Allie’s love, might evaporate like his dream of Olympic gold once Allie learns about Jeff’s scandalous past. Chasing Freedom, a modern-day story of honor and courage, faith and love, and the importance of family. To women readers -- never fear reading a thriller by H.L. Wegley. The stories may be gritty and intense, but descriptions and events will never be gross, graphic, or gratuitous. Chasing Freedom  is an award-winning story that looks at the U.S. immigration system from the point of view of a family being abused by it. Our immigration system is fraught with problems. Corruption is reportedly widespread within Customs and Border Protection (CBP). That should not be surprising because CBP has absolutely no investigative oversight other than a hundred different congressional committees. Of course, such fragmented and diluted oversight is ineffective. Chasing Freedom , though a prequel to the Against AllEnemies series, is best read last. Should you wish to read it first, skip the Prologue and Epilogue and it will read as a stand-alone novel. And note that this story is set near my home town and a couple of years prior to the legalization of marijuana in Oregon. H. L. Wegley served in the US Air Force as an Intelligence Analyst and aWeather Officer. He is a Meteorologist who, while working as a forecaster and aResearch Scientist in Atmospheric Physics, published extensively in thescientific literature. After earning an MS in Computer Science, he worked morethan two decades as a Systems Programmer at Boeing before retiring in theSeattle area, where he and his wife of 50 years enjoy small-group ministry,their grandchildren, beach hiking, snorkeling Maui whenever they can, and wherehe writes inspirational thrillers and high-action, romantic suspense novels.Besides his scientific publications, he published one non-fiction work, Colbyand Me: Growing up in the '50s, a humorous collection of the childhoodadventures of an early baby boomer. Check out his author site at hlwegley.com