Escape

by Brian T. Seifrit

For Hayden Rochsoff and his two associates---brother and sister team Alex and Monique Farell, both members of the Russian Rebel Army---freedom was a dream come true... For too long their own country had held them captive. After a futile attempt to escape their domain and the communism they had been forced to live with, Hayden is taken into custody and tortured; he vows revenge. Joining up with the ranks of his friends, Hayden takes up his role as a shooter and becomes one of the RRA's best marksmen. He is depended upon to help rescue Monique, who is taken captive as the RRA infiltrates a secret government agency. Forced to kill to liberate his captured friends, Hayden and his associates have the last word as they attempt to heist sixty four million dollars from the D.E.A and US Navy. The threesome are fastidiously pursued by those who would rather see them dead. Escape was their only hope.

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hayden, Alex and Monique are anti-communist rebels fighting in present-day Russia. A man named Ellis Leroy, who can generously be called a lying scumbag, offers them a tempting proposition. He will guarantee safe passage out of Russia, and a free, one-way, boat trip to freedom in the West (specifically, Nome, Alaska). In exchange, all that the three have to do is to break into a heavily guarded US Navy ship at the local Navy base. They have to make their way to the Presidential Suite, at the top of the ship, and steal $64 million in confiscated drug money, then make it off the ship alive. Alex does not survive, but Hayden and Monique succeed in getting the money, then conveniently forget about splitting it with Leroy.

Five years later, Hayden is happily married to Colleen (a waitress on the ship from Russia to Alaska) and living in rural British Columbia. Leroy shows up one day, with one of his henchmen, demanding to know where Hayden is. Colleen says nothing, so she is drugged, kidnapped and taken to an isolated cabin. In a videotape sent to Hayden, Leroy makes it very clear that unless he gets his share of the $64 million, very soon, Colleen will be going back to Russia, on a one-way trip into the Russian sex trade. Acting as nonchalant as possible, Hayden asks around in the nearby town, and is able to narrow down their location. Armed with several weapons, Hayden undertakes a trek of several days through deep snow to reach them.

On the positive side, this is an interesting story set in a part of the world, Alaska and Western Canada, not known as a thriller setting. On the negative side, if there are to be future printings of this book, it really needs a trip, or another trip, to a proofreader or copyeditor. This book belongs in that large gray area of Pretty Good or Worth Reading.