Vanishing Borders

After two years of outstanding service to the nation, PATRICIA MARSHALL, 31, tough-minded, self-confident commercial design consultant, and HARRY HAMILTON, 36, laid-back, risk-averse private investigator, are embroiled in another counterinsurgency operation in the U. S. National Parks. Subversives are using the parks as safe havens for processing terrorists entering the country and channeling them to embedded cells. Marshall and Hamilton are recruited to head up a novel park ranger auxiliary in Bryce Canyon National Park, find the insurgents, and help defeat this latest threat to homeland security.


The story opens with Marshall trapped in the canyon as a result of a broken leg from a fall while eavesdropping on suspects during a winter storm. Auxiliary ranger ALICE WOJECK, tough former gang member, is kidnapped while tracking suspects and barely escapes with her life. Wojeck and macho park ranger SCOTT CANTRELL survive a firefight with insurgents on a canyon trail. FBI agents are shot and one killed tracking suspected terrorists en route to an embedded cell.


THE SNAKE, master mind behind the insurgency operation, proves to be a challenging adversary for the rangers and the FBI. To avoid exposure whenever possible, he changes physical characteristics, murders innocent victims and dissolves into thin air when about to be pinned down. A clever FBI strategy to milk The Snake by allowing him to operate in the park so his recruits can be traced to their embedded cells and the cells destroyed, fails. The Snake outwits them all.


The Hamilton team launches a search for The Snake to prevent him and a terrorist leader from executing a sabotage plan. Two auxiliaries are abducted by the Snake. Hamilton and Marshall launch a search operation and locate the base for the sabotage operation where their colleagues are being held. The rescue effort leads to a major FBI take down of the terrorists with considerable carnage.


The Snake and the terrorist leader escape to fight another day. Marshall and Hamilton end their association with the auxiliary and return to their business activities.


Marshall has continuing friendship and romantic involvement with both Hamilton and Cantrell during the action. This love triangle complicates their adventures with the wily Snake. Marshall wrestles with her feelings for each of the men in her life, but is unable to decide whether to stay friend and occasional lover with Hamilton or accept Cantrell’s proposal of marriage. Cantrell resolves the problem for her.