Talon's Grip — Russ Hall

Arthur Sanderson remembers Frankie Lane from their high school days as a pudgy nerd. Forty years later he sure seems lean and fit enough as he runs through an airport to the sound of guns firing. At the speed of a bullet Arthur's reclusive life changes forever and he gets only brief chances to ponder what swept him into the path of action-filled chaos and who to trust . . . and who not to trust at all as he sorts through a tangle of agendas and romances past and present when thrust back into the lives of former cheerleader Poppy Perkin, class genius "Dirty Fingernails" Huff Ocher, and a handful of other classmates. Having grown up in the shadow of an Ohio nuclear plant now run by Unitalon's Steve Hamilton, they don't have to wonder long what brought an old spy like Frankie in out of the cold, they just have to figure out, in very little time, if they can work together to save the nation.